Roasted Vegetable Bowl

I had some success with a new recipe tonight and while I wasn't blown away by it, it was very good for using ingredients that I'm not particularly fond of in the first place. It used things from my bountiful basket and ingredients I've been trying out and already had in my kitchen (namely chickpeas, nutritional yeast, and  tahini paste, though it didn't have an overly-eastern taste to it).

A minor note before I launch into the recipe: I cooked dried chickpeas in chicken stock (you can use vegetable if you're doing vegetarian/vegan) and it made them SUPER tasty compared to the usual canned-fare!  Though I would recommend rinsing them before starting the soak (I forgot that step!)

Roasted Vegetable Bowl

Ingredients:
For Roasting:
-1.5 cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or one 15oz can)
-4 Tablespoons melted butter (divided)
-2 Tablespoons lemon juice (divided)
-2 teaspoons garlic powder (divided)
-1 teaspoon sea salt (divided)
-1/4 teaspoon black pepper (divided)
-1 head broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces
-1 head cauliflower, chopped into bite sized pieced
For the Dressing:
-1/2 cup almonds, soaked
-2 Tablespoons lemon juice
-1 Tablespoon tahini paste
-1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
-1/4 teaspoon sea salt
-1/4 cup nutritional yeast
-3/4 cup vegetable or chicken broth
Top with:
-2-3 Tablespoons chopped almonds
Instructions:
1. Soak almonds in a bowl for 8 hours (or boil for 45 minutes).
2 Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line two large baking sheets with foil. Prepare with EVOO spray.
3. Combine 2 T butter, 1 T lemon juice, 1 t garlic powder, 1/2 t sea salt, and 1/8 t black pepper.  Drizzle over broccoli and cauliflower.  Stir to coat.  Place on a baking sheet and set aside.
4. Combine 2 T butter, 1 T lemon juice, 1 t garlic powder, 1/2 t sea salt, and 1/8 t black pepper. Drizzle over chickpeas. Stir to coat and place on baking sheet.
5. Roast veggies and chickpeas for 15 minutes. Give the pan of chickpeas a gentle shake to rotate. Roast and additional 10 minutes.
6. Prepare the dressing by placing all the dressing ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  Set aside.
7. Mix roasted vegetables and chickpeas together and serve into bowls.  Drizzle dressing over the veggie mixture and garnish with chopped almonds

Special note: This dish serves 4.  If you wish to serve more people or just want leftovers, double the "For Roasting" ingredients but not the dressing.  The dressing recipe makes much more than you use with 1 recipe's worth of roasted vegetables.

Tasty Dried Veggies!

I have a confession to make:  I'm a pig.  If it's in my house and it tastes good, I'm eating it. **sigh** Superbowl was a disaster.  Or delicious, depending on how you look at it.  Though I did have a victory this weekend with some brussel sprouts!

In all of my meal planning last weekend after receiving my bountiful basket, I realized that I'd found uses for everything in my basket except for the brussel sprouts.  After running through a few recipes for how to cook them as a side dish I found a couple that suggested you bake them for 10 minutes or so after coating them in EVOO and sea salt.  I have to admit, I was completely unexcited about just salt and the baking at 350 was a disaster with the first batch.  Some parts were burnt and other parts still moist.  But my oven has a dehydrating setting and I decided it was finally time to try it out.  Well, it was SO tasty... it was gone before I remembered I should even take a picture of the finished product for my blog **blushes** PLUS, my kids LOVED them and asked for more!!

I'm super eager to try out this recipe with other vegetables for quick snacks!!

Dehydrated Veggie Recipe

Ingredients: 

From the 1st batch that didn't turn out,
but shows them spread out.
Add drying rack and MUCH less heat!

-10 Brussel Sprouts (or whatever vegetable you want to try and substitute; about 2 cups?)

-2 Tablespoons melted butter

-1 Tablespoon lemon juice

-1 teaspoon garlic powder

-1/2 teaspoon sea salt

-1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions: 

1. Cut stem off the bottom of brussel sprout, save leaves that fall off, cut a little more of the stem off and remove leaves.  Continue until desired amount has been removed (How hard do you want to work for the little leaves?).

2.  Melt butter in a pan, add other ingredients and stir well.

3. Pour over brussel sprouts and stir until evenly coated.

4. If using a dryer setting your oven: set a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet.  Spread veggies evenly over the top and dry until crunchy all the way through.  (was a few hours in mine)

If using a dryer: spread evenly over trays on a low heat and dry until crunchy all the way through.

5. Let cool to room temperature and bag (if they make it that long!)