Roasted Root Vegetable Salad

Happy Monday! It’s been an exciting past week on One Beet.  Things kicked off with a bang thanks to the giveaway (which is going until 3/31, so you still have time to enter), followed by a a couple of fun guest posts out in the blogosphere. Now, it’s time to get back to my recipe roots.

This is my signature meal. Seriously. If I had to pick the meal that I eat most often (especially during the colder months), this is it. I am absolutely wild about the blend of flavors when you bring together fresh greens and sweet roasted vegetables. Plus the addition of warm vegetables makes cool salads so much more appealing in the winter, not to mention more substantial. I often eat this as a stand-alone meal, but it also makes a terrific side dish.

And last, but certainly not least, this is one of those dishes that is made to be flexible based on what you have on hand. The recipe below highlights my ‘greatest hits’ but this is a perfect recipe to experiment with depending on what’s in your fridge at any given moment. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Roasted Root Vegetable Salad Ingredients (serves 2):

2 carrots, sliced
1 red onion, diced
2 small sweet potatoes, or 1 large sweet potato, diced
3 medium beets, diced
6 cloves of garlic, rough chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
salt and pepper
spinach, arugula, & mesclun for salad
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Salad Dressing Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon tamari, liquid aminos, or soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced

Other great veggies to include – all types of winter squash, potatoes, parsnips, burdock root, brussels sprouts, fennel, or turnips.

Directions (15 minutes prep time, 40 minutes cook time):

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash all the root vegetables and chop into bite-sized pieces. Peel the onion and garlic, but it’s not necessary to peel any of the other root veggies.

Mix the chopped root vegetables with the onions/garlic and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast at 400 for 40 minutes.

While the roots are roasting, wash and dry the greens, and prepare the salad dressing (I like to mix it up in a jar).

Serve the hot roasted veggies on top of the greens, dress the entire salad, sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, and dig in!

If you have leftover veggies, store them in a container without the greens. They will keep for five days in the fridge and can be added to future salads, used like hash browns with eggs, or eaten straight from fridge!

This salad will win you over with taste, but while you’re sitting there basking in the glow of your culinary masterpiece you can also celebrate all the nourishment you’re getting from this dish. Greens are one of the most fundamental sources of vitamins and minerals in our diets and it’s great to eat heaping bowls of greens every day. Unfortunately many salads are uninspired and don’t encourage you to jump on the greens bandwagon. Because of this, it’s important to experiment and find the salads that are just right for you so you’re excited to include them in your diet.

Root vegetables are bursting with antioxidants thanks to their bright colors. It really does boil down to eating the rainbow! Root vegetables also have lots of natural sugars, which are intensified when roasted. Eating healthy sources of whole-food sugar can help reduce sugar cravings and limit the processed sweeteners in your diet.

And those pumpkin seeds do more than simply add a nice crunch – they offer a healthy dose of iron and plant-based omega 3’s.  Enjoy!