Lunch

10 Roasted Vegetable Recipe Ideas

Gillian

Every year, I fall into a bit of a funk as the sweet summer produce slowly disappears at the market, and is replaced by… root vegetables. So many root vegetables. All of the root vegetables.

Don’t get me wrong. I love squash and beets and sweet potatoes and the rest of ’em. But on month three of roasted veggies, it’s hard to muster the same enthusiasm as I did at the beginning of the season.

To avoid dying of boredom (or just indulging in all the mashed potatoes, pot pies, and mac and cheese I really want to eat all winter), I’ve been experimenting with new ways to use roasted veggies.

The basic idea is this: make a pan or two of assorted vegetables (plus some sautéed greens if you have them). How to Roast Any Vegetable from The Kitchn is an excellent overview of how to do this like a pro. Then mix and match recipes throughout the week, and give yourself a gold star for being such a responsible adult.

Roasted Veggie Recipes

10 Ways to Use Roasted Veggies

 

1. Spicy Veggie Bowls

Layer veggies on a bed of grains – like whole-wheat couscous or bulgur. Drizzle with plain Greek yogurt mixed with harissa or sriracha.

2. Goat Cheese Polenta & Veggies

Make a quick pot of cheesy polenta, and serve with vegetables.

3. Pasta

Cook pasta, toss with olive oil or butter, and mix in vegetables. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and fresh ground pepper.

4. Tacos

Combine Meatless Monday and Taco Tuesday, replacing the standard ground taco meat with roasted veggies. Serve with all your favorite fixins: salsa, avocado, sour cream, pickled onions, jalapeños and cheese.

5. Pizza

Roll out homemade or store-bought pizza dough; cover with tomato sauce, roasted veggies and cheese, and bake. (If you have a cast iron skillet, I highly recommend the insanely delicious Foolproof Pan Pizza recipe from Serious Eats.)  The picture below is a variation loosely based on the flavors of tarte flambée (Alsatian tart): crème fraîche, roasted veggies, sautéed Swiss chard, queso fresco and crispy pancetta.

Roasted Veggie Pizza

6. Omelets

Jazz up a plain omelet with roasted vegetables and goat cheese.

7. Vegetarian Curry

Sauté chopped onions in olive oil until they soften. Add a few spoonfuls of curry paste or powder, and cook another minute. Mix in a can of coconut milk and roasted vegetables. Simmer for 10 minutes; serve over rice or noodles.

8. Sandwiches

Spread hearty bread with a flavorful sauce, like pesto, romesco, hummus or tapenade. Add a layer of roasted vegetables, and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar.

9. Salad

Spoon veggies onto a bowl of mixed greens, lettuce or spinach. Add nuts, crumbled cheese and vinaigrette.

10. Soup

Bring chicken or vegetable broth to a boil. Add dry pasta and cook till not quite al dente. Stir in veggies, and cook until heated through.

 

These ideas barely scratch the surface of the possibilities. What are your favorite ways to use roasted veggies?

Chicken Noodle Soup

Gillian

I have a terrible cold right now, which means I will be a terrible person for at least three more days. I’ve also given it to Brian because I’m just generous like that – and who wants to wallow in feverish self-pity alone?

Of course all I want to eat is chicken noodle soup, because it’s the only thing that will make me feel better (It’s science.) And none of that salt-bomb canned stuff with soggy noodles. I want homemade chicken noodle soup.

Chicken Noodle Recipe | Traveling To Taste

Well, you can see the conundrum.

So I made a big pot of this soup to last us a few days. It tastes way better than canned – but doesn’t expect miracles from a cook who can barely get out of bed. I’m filled with rage when I see ingredients like “finely chopped parsley” in a chicken soup recipe (It’s 5 p.m., and I just managed to shower. You seriously expect me to have parsley right now?).

Adjust the following “recipe” (if you can call it that) to your circumstances. Send the healthiest person in your house to the grocery store to pick up a rotisserie chicken and all of the NyQuil. Skip all the vegetables if you don’t have any, or throw in a bag of frozen veggies right before the noodles are done. Whatever it takes to get this soup in your belly.

Feel better.

Print
Chicken Noodle Soup

Serving Size: 6

Ingredients

  • Vegetable or olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 carrots, cut into chunks
  • 2 celery stalks, cut into chunks
  • 1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off and shredded into pieces
  • 8 cups (2 quarts/ almost 2 liters) chicken broth
  • Dry pasta (I used 1 cup corkscrew noodles)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Dried oregano, crushed red pepper and/or poultry seasoning (optional)

Instructions

  1. In a large pot, cook the onion in oil for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Add the carrots and celery; cook for another 5 minutes, until they are slightly more tender. Add garlic and cook for a minute.
  2. Add chicken broth; simmer for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are starting to get tender. Season with salt and pepper (and other herbs and spices, if using).
  3. Add noodles and chicken pieces, and cook till noodles are al dente.
https://www.travelingtotaste.com/2017/05/09/chicken-noodle-soup/

Beets and Pasta (courtesy of Mark Bittman)

Brian

We love our CSA. Every Tuesday we get a basket full of produce, and most of it we know how to cook. Some other items require a bit of research, and some of it I’ve never even heard of (I’m looking at you kohlrabi).

I’ve written about beets beets beets before, but they showed up again in our basket this week and I had to take to the interwebs to figure out something new to do with them.

Thankfully Mark Bittman was one step ahead of us with this recipe on the New York Times Cooking site. It’s quick, easy, delicious and totally different from any pasta I’ve made before.

The recipe is roughly this: 1) grate beets 2) cook in butter 3) add sage, cooked pasta and cheese. That’s it!

beet pasta

 

Grating the beets definitely speeds up their cook time as compared to baking them whole, and the butter and sage give a really rich flavor without investing a lot of time. Also, visually it’s just a beautiful dish.

Fingers crossed that some beets will turn up in our basket this week so we can make this again!