Roasted Vegetables – Simple Salads
I’m deep in summer salad season. The temperature in Brisbane hasn’t dipped below 30C for weeks. Add in the humidity factor upward of 50% and phew, it’s hot!
Trying not to resort to constant repetition I make salad every day. Sometimes it’s just green leaves with simple lemony vinaigrette or olive oil dressed sweet tomatoes with fresh basil leaves but for me variety is the spice of life.
The oven is the exclusive domain of bread while the weather is stinking hot and reluctant to waste an opportunity, I’ve recently begun putting vegetables into the oven to roast on the rack below the sourdough loaves as they bake. Diced sweet potato, pumpkin and baby carrots will all cook through and caramelise nicely during the second stage of the bread baking process, 25 minutes at 200C. The intense flavour of roasted vegetables make for a really tasty salad either alone or mixed with other fresh ingredients.
Here are two simple ideas from recent weeks.
Roasted carrot salad
Pomegranate Molasses Dressed Roasted Baby Carrots – serves 4
2 bunches baby carrots, topped, tailed, scrubbed
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons roughly chopped pistachios
60g crumbled feta
1/2 teaspoon Turkish red pepper flakes (pul biber)
Toss the cleaned carrots in olive oil and season generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast the carrots until they are cooked through and caramelised.
Remove the carrots from the oven and immediately drizzle over the pomegranate molasses. Allow the carrots to cool, transfer to a serving bowl then scatter over the nuts, feta and pepper flakes.
Serve tepid or at room temperature.
Roasted Sweet Potato, CousCous and Spinach Salad
Roasted Sweet Potato, Couscous and Spinach Salad – serves 4
1 medium large sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups of cooked couscous
100g baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup smoked almonds roughly chopped
1/4 cup finely sliced spring onion greens
1 tablespoon extra olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar.
Toss the diced sweet potato in the olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast the sweet potato until cooked through and caramelised.
Remove the sweet potato from the oven and allow to cool a little.
Toss together the roasted sweet potato, couscous, spinach, herbs and nuts.
Dress with the extra olive oil and sherry vinegar.
Toss again then serve at room temperature.
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27 comments on “Roasted Vegetables – Simple Salads”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
looks amazing!
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Thanks Stacey 🙂
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In the summer I LOVE roasted veggie, chilled then served with a sprinkle of some kind of cheese and a light vinaigrette. This sounds tasty.
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Thank you. Roasted vegies do make a great salad, I love them hot straight from the oven too 🙂
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I love to try this one! Thank you! 😍
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Thanks Amy, enjoy….
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These salads look very tasty! It is a great combination of flavours!
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Thanks Agness.😀
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Really enjoyed this!
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Thanks Jen…
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I usually bake after the bread is done, even easier to roast a veg at the same time. I’ll definitely try that this summer when our temps are near 40 and humidity about 90%+.
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It’s good to be able to add variety to the salads without extra oven time, so bread and roast veg work for me
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Well, I make salads summer and winter and these two are real beauties . . .even my current carrot one will > back of the file! And weather-wise none of you would like to be in the Sydney Basin this weekend when we are meant to experience the three hottest days in the area EVER! Well, it’s just on 11am and my thermometer says 39C 😦 ! The electricity supplies supposedly won’t cope by mid-afternoon and they are talking 44-46C tomorrow [yes, I am inland!!] . . . . so, be happy with your 30s !!!
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I though Melbourne’s 40s would have prepared me for Brisbane, but with the humidity sitting around 70% coupled with mid 30s temps for weeks on end just wears you down. There there’s no cool changes blowing in either, oh well I know I’ll survive. Hope the electricity supply hangs in there for you, keep cool….
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*smile* Shall try: more worried for the recently bought fridgeful of food and ‘dead’ computer for paidwork but am quite breathless at just 40C at the moment . . . am 40km inland so the ‘southerly busters’ don’t work well here either! And none of us have air-con – not worth it for the usual 4-5 days of over 40C annually! Have a good weekend . . .
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Two beautiful salads my dear. Lovely indeed.
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Thanks Conor, the carrots would be delicious served hot too..
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What a terrific idea to use your oven for roasting veggies along with your bread. Both your salads look great but I think the carrot one is the one I would try first.
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Thanks Karen, the carrot salad was a winner…
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It’s bizarre how an overpowering design for vegies of all colours comes over you when the weather’s hot. Anyone would think we were designed for seasonal eating!
I like the look of that second one, but I’ll be using quinoa instead of couscous…
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Yes you’re right Kate, we do change our colours with the seasons. I’m no lover of quinoa, my other option is millet although I have to say San Remo brand GF couscous is good
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It’s all down to what I can get round here! Millet no, San Remo coucous no, quinoa in many forms yes…
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Haven’t we come a long way from iceberg lettuce (floppy), tomato carrot and beetroot! Both of these look lovely and the carrot one has all my favourite flavours in it. I’m using different grains so much more these days.
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Yes salads have come a very long way although I have to say I still have a soft spot for iceberg lettuce. For me you can’t go past it for sandwiches..
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Agree, but almost impossible to find to buy.
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How marvellous those salads look. We have 37 c with 70%humidity here, more like queensland really. And I must remember to bake veg when making bread,either during or after… fab post.
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Thanks Francesca, i don’t know why I didn’t think sooner to take advantage of the oven’s heat while baking bread. Keep cool…
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