Roasted Vegetable Gouda Stacks

Thoughts & Inspiration

This was something I tried for my dinner party.  I did a play on a layered ratatouille.  This dish is fun, light and simple with twist of smokiness from the Gouda.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 cup of your favorite red sauce (any pasta sauce)
2 Tbsp of olive oil (I used a flavor infused olive oil - Garlic Olive Oil from Trader Joe's)
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 long Japanese eggplant, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
3 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Gouda cheese, cut into thin slices (approximately the same size of the vegetable slices)
Toothpicks

Spice Mix - Combine all the spice together
1/2 tsp Herbes de Provence
1/4 tsp Ancho Chili Powder (or Chipotle Chili)
1/4 tsp Paprika
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato sauce into the bottom of a baking dish, approximately 10-13 inches across the long way. Drizzle 1 Tbsp of olive oil over the sauce and add a few pinches of the spice mix.  

Trim the ends off the yellow squash, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes.  On a mandoline or using a very sharp knife, cut all the vegetables into thin slices, approximately 1/4-inch thick (you want to have approximately 24 slices of each, to create 12 stacks).

Start arranging the vegetables in stacks on top of the tomato sauce.  Start with the yellow squash on the bottom, followed by a slice of Gouda, tomato, eggplant and zucchini.  Sprinkle with spice mix.  Continuing layering on top with Gouda, yellow squash, eggplant, zucchini and tomato.  Place a toothpick starting in the center of each stack and push all the way down to the bottom to hold all together.  Repeat this to make all of your vegetable stacks.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with the remainder of the spice mix.

Cover the baking dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit the inside of the dish.  Bake for approximately 45 minutes, until the vegetables have cooked through and released juices.  Remove from oven carefully.  The stacks may have slided down, but you can carefully pick the toothpick back up and re-structure your stack.  The tomato sauce should be bubbling with the Gouda melted. 

Variation:  If you don't like Gouda, Smoked Mozzarella would also be great in this dish!

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!