Roasted Vegetable Salad

Thoughts & Inspiration

My parents came over to spend the weekend and I wanted to make something fun and light for lunch.  My dad is a diabetic so I was trying to stay away from carbs and sugar.  I wanted to make a salad of some sort, but of course I didn't want to make just something ordinary.  I took some of my favorite flavors along with a few things I knew they loved and created this amazing dish!  

It seems like a lot of ingredients and time, but it is actually quite easy if you put everything in the oven together!  Be inventive and throw in vegetables that you like.  Anything here can be substituted to make it yours!

Ingredients for Salad

1/2 head cauliflower cut into florets

6 white button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced through stem in half (creating two equal halves)

6 cremini mushrooms, same as above

1 ripe roma tomato, cut into 4 thick slices

1 red onion, cut into 4 quarters

1/2 apple, sliced thin

4 radishes, sliced thin

4 large romaine leaves

4 grape tomatoes, cut into quarters

1/4 cup pistachios (coarsely grind in food processor)

3-4 Tbsp olive oil for roasting

4 Tbsp hummus

Ingredients for Dressing

1/2 juice of large lemon

1/4 cup good extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp white balsamic

1 tsp stone ground dijon

Salt and pepper

Roasted Chickpeas

1 can chickpeas, washed and drained

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp olive oil

Sea salt to taste

Soup Shooter

1/2 cup broccoli florets

1/2 spinach

1 sprig green onion

1 small clove garlic

1 cup water

Salt and pepper

Additional Options

Fresh mint leaves

Any cheese - I used fresh mozzarella (goat cheese or feta cheese would probably be delicious as well)

Roasted chickpeas

Mix all ingredients and spread evenly on a baking sheet lined with foil so that the chickpeas are all in a single layer.  Roast for 40 minutes at 400F.  Remove from oven and allow to cool before eating.  To store, place roasted chickpeas in an air tight container.

Dressing

Mix all the ingredients together in a bottle and shake to combine or whisk everything together.

Roasting vegetables

Spread a little bit of olive oil on two separate baking sheets.  Place mushrooms on one sheet and brush with some oil and sprinkle salt and pepper.  Place cauliflower, roma tomato slices and onion wedges on another baking sheet and brush with some oil and sprinkle salt and pepper.  Roast vegetables for 20 minutes at 400F.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Soup

Place all ingredients into vitamix and blend on high for 5-6 minutes.  Serve immediately.  If you don't have a vitamix, you can make any soup and place into a small shooter glass on your plate, or completely leave the soup out.

Plating

Place 1 romaine leaf on a plate.  Spoon a dollop of hummus onto one side of the plate.  Arrange vegetables, fruit, cheese and chickpeas as you wish along the romaine (see picture for inspiration).  Have fun with how you decide to arrange the plate... it's your world!  Once all the ingredients are on your plate, drizzle about 2 Tbsp of the dressing over the plate.  As a final touch, sprinkle some of the ground pistachios all over!  You can add some fresh mint leaves onto the plate if you want that extra bit of yum!