Roasted Vegetable Salad with Corn, Snap Peas, Red Pepper & Sweet Potatoes
As much as I adore fresh, raw ingredients in my salads, sometimes I think roasting veggies makes them taste even better. There’s something about that slow-cooked, vaguely-carmelized flavor that makes a roasted salad explode on my tongue in an ever-so-smooth kind of way. And such salads are ridiculously easy to make — the veggies themselves are so pronounced and satisfying that you don’t even need to add dressing. Just remove them from the oven, let cool slightly, and toss together. The only thing you might want to add is a sharp, piquant cheese like sheep’s-milk Feta or a soft goat cheese. Trust me, your dinner guests will think this is the best salad they’ve ever had!
Roasted Vegetable Salad
You can use any kind of vegetable you’d like — with the glaring exception of delicate greens, vegetables roast well. Just be sure to put them in separate pans so that you can remove them as they’re done (different vegetables and different shapes have different cooking times). I often use several pie pans since I can fit five or six 9″ ones into the oven at once. Something long and slender, for example (green beans, green onions, or asparagus) is going to cook more quickly than something more dense and starchy (potatoes, turnips, or parsnips). Separating veggies individually or by type will make it much easier for you to cook them to the doneness that you like best.
Get the oven heating to about 350 degrees F, then clean and slice veggies in whatever way you’d like. Some — like cherry tomatoes or small- to medium-sized Brussels sprouts — you may wish to leave whole. Kernels of corn roast beautifully (fresh or frozen); so do peas and carrots and onions and almost anything else you can think of.
Place your veggies into their separate pans or trays. Toss with melted butter (or coconut oil), sea salt, and freshly-cracked pepper. Turn each piece to make sure it’s coated in oil and spices.
Bake for about 30 minutes before checking in on your veggies. At this point, very slender cuts may be done; starchier or thicker-cut veggies may only be halfway there (or less). It’s best to open the oven, pull out a rack, and stir the veggies with a wooden spoon so that you can get a really good look at them and determine how done they are. In my experience, corn, snap peas, peppers, and onions take about the same amount of time, but again, that depends on how you cut the latter two. After that 30-minute mark, keep checking your veggies every 15 minutes to gauge their progress. Note that after you’ve done this once or twice, you’ll have a much better idea of how long things will take.
When veggies are done to your satisfaction, simply remove from oven, toss together, and serve. You may want to add some Feta or goat cheese directly to the mix or let each diner add her own.
Enjoy!
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Tags: bell pepper, corn, roasted vegetables, snap peas, sweet potatoes
