Roasted Vegetable Heaven
A little planning and preparation is key to a successful vegan lifestyle.
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A little planning and preparation is key to a successful vegan lifestyle. We love cooking as a family and we tend to rotate a meal prep plan for weekday meals.
When you switch to a plant based diet from a typical Western diet, you’ll be taking in a higher daily intake of certain beneficial nutrients.
Several studies have shown that that vegan diets provide more fibre, antioxidants, and beneficial plant compounds. They also appear to be richer in potassium, magnesium, folate, and vitamins A, C, and E.
Something to be cognisant of is poorly planned vegan diets may not provide sufficient amounts of essential fatty acids, vitamin B12, niacin, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D, calcium, iodine, selenium, or zinc ().
That’s why it’s vital to choose whole plant foods and good oils, the best way to make sure that you are giving your body what it needs is to embrace weekly meal prep at home and immerse yourself in getting creative with your plant based journey.
Also remember that it takes time, be gentle with yourself and keep learning.
A meal prep staple in the Reed household is a big pan of roasted veg, you can start with squashes and root vegetables, and then add in peppers, red onions, chickpeas and zucchinis for the last 30 minutes.
The key is, to use lots of good peppery olive oil and season generously. Once cooled and in the fridge, you can chop the veg and add it to salads or grains with hummus and fresh herbs for a quick lunch. Serve reheated with a drizzle of lemon juice and toasted pine nuts for dinner.
We experiment with many different flavours from Indian to Mexican spice combinations to this classic Italian version with lots of herbs and garlic.
Ingredients |
You can use any selection of veg that you have on hand or available at your local farmers market. We experiment with many different flavours from Indian to Mexican spice combinations to this classic Italian version with lots of herbs and garlic.
- 2 red peppers
- 1 red onion
- 1 butternut squash
- 6 baby leeks
- 4 courgettes , different colours if possible
- 1 aubergine
- 2 tomatoes
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 tin of chickpeas
- Himalayan sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small bunch fresh rosemary
- 1 small bunch fresh thyme
- Extra virgin olive oil olive oil
- Smoked paprika
- Flat leaf parsley
- Lemon wedge
Prepare Your Vegetables |
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Halve and de-seed the pepper, then cut each half into 4 pieces. Peel the red onion and chop into 8 wedges. Cut the squash in half, then scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut each half into 2cm chunks. Wash and trim the baby leeks. Halve the courgettes lengthways then slice into roughly 2cm chunks. Top and tail the aubergine, cut it into quarters, then into 2cm chunks. Quarter the tomatoes. Leave the cloves of garlic in their skins but squash them with the heel of your hand or the handle of your chefs knife.
- Place all the veg in an extra large roasting tray. Season with a liberal pinch of salt and pepper and sprinkle over I heaped teasopoon of smoked paprika. Pick and roughly chop the rosemary leaves. Pick the thyme leaves. Scatter all of the herbs over the veg. Drizzle it all well with olive oil and toss to coat.
- Roast your veg for around 50 minutes, or until soft, cooked through and golden. Add the drained chickpeas in, 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Scatter with chopped parsley and drizzle with lemon juice.
- If the vegetables seem crowded in a single roasting pan, divide them between two. Overcrowding the pan will stop enough heat getting to the vegetables and they will steam rather than roast.
- Turning the vegetables as they roast helps them to cook evenly. If you’re using two roasting pans, swap them round half way through cooking.Roasting is a great way to make veg taste delicious, and it works for just about any combo – just make sure your oven is fairly hot, the veg are roughly the same size and that they get a good stir every now and again.
It’s just as delicious enjoyed cold!
Another week time staple in our household is chickpea penne tossed with warmed up roast veg, extra olive oil, torn basil leaves and something creamy and delicious from La Fauxmargerie crumbled over the top.
One of our current favourite things is to set a gorgeous table in the garden with Reed hemstitch linens and serve piles of warm pita bread with coconut yoghurt raita, the roasted veg and lots of vegan feta cheese.
Load up some panini’s with cold roasted veg and fresh summery vegan pesto and head to the park to soak up some good weather.
Happy Roasting,
Karen Reed
