Sheet-Pan Roasted Vegetables and Butter Beans with Tahini Drizzle

General Fast With Oil Published August 02, 2026

The trick that makes this more than a tray of roasted vegetables is putting the beans on the pan too. They dry out at the edges, crisp slightly, and pick up the caramelization from the vegetables around them. Roasted beans are a different food from simmered beans, and worth knowing.

Everything goes on one pan and into a hot oven. While it roasts you whisk tahini with lemon and water until it turns pale and pourable — that transformation, where tahini seizes and then loosens into cream, always looks like a mistake right up until it isn't.

This is a good Sunday-cooking dish: roast a double tray, and you have lunches that are just as good cold.

FASTING LEVEL: Fast With Oil
SERVINGS: 4
TIME: 50 minutes

INGREDIENTS

For the pan:
- 1 large sweet potato (500g), cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 head cauliflower (700g), cut into florets
- 2 red onions, cut into wedges
- 2 x 400g cans butter beans (lima beans), drained and patted dry
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Black pepper

For the tahini drizzle:
- 1/2 cup (120g) tahini
- Juice of 1.5 lemons
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6-8 tablespoons cold water

To finish:
- 1/2 cup (15g) parsley, chopped
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds (optional)
- 1/4 cup (35g) toasted pumpkin seeds

METHOD

1. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Use two pans if one is crowded — crowded vegetables steam instead of roasting, and this is the difference between good and dull.

2. Toss the sweet potato, cauliflower, and onion with 3 tablespoons of the oil and all the spices and salt. Spread out on the pan.

3. Toss the dried beans separately with the remaining tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt, then scatter them among the vegetables.

4. Roast 35-40 minutes, tossing once at 20 minutes, until the cauliflower is charred at the tips and the sweet potato is tender.

5. Meanwhile, whisk the tahini with the lemon juice, garlic, and salt. It will seize into a thick paste — keep going, adding cold water a tablespoon at a time, until it turns pale and pours like heavy cream.

6. Pile the roasted vegetables and beans onto a platter, drizzle generously with tahini, and scatter with parsley, pomegranate, and pumpkin seeds.

NOTES

- For strict no-oil days: roast on parchment without oil at 400°F, tossing more often, and make the tahini sauce as written only if your rule permits sesame paste — otherwise dress with lemon, salt, and a spoonful of the roasting juices.
- Chickpeas roast even crisper than butter beans; use them if that texture appeals.
- Any hard vegetable works: carrots, parsnips, squash, Brussels sprouts, broccoli.
- The tahini sauce keeps two weeks refrigerated and thickens — thin with water before using.