roasted vegetables

ROASTED VEGETABLE BISQUE

December 9, 2018 by Sarah Baade 2 Comments

Lately I’ve been realizing just how busy my weekdays are. A typical day means I’m up at 5:45am to get ready and help our daughter get ready for the day. After working a full day at the office, I pick our daughter up from school then head home. We have just a little time to play before needing to get dinner going. Soon after dinner, we put our daughter to bed and then I rush out the door to get a workout in. Around 8:00pm I am finally able to relax and catch up with my husband on how our day was. I know my schedule isn’t all that unusual, lots of families have a similar (or crazier) routine. To be honest, I also have TONS of help from my husband, he is my ultimate teammate in life! However, reflecting on my schedule has emphasized the importance of easy meals in our household. I do prefer to cook homemade meals but I definitely have days when those chicken nuggets in the freezer are all I can muster. On the days when I am cooking, I try to fix healthy meals and expose my daughter to a variety of foods and flavors (with an emphasis on vegetables).

My daughter has been really eager to help in the kitchen lately which provides an opportunity to share a wider variety of foods with her. She might not end up eating what we fix (she is only two years old, after all, and I’m realistic) but the exposure is still there. If she sees us prepping and eating healthy foods, those options won’t be strange to her as she gets older. This bisque recipe is actually a perfect one for her to help with. I chop vegetables and then let her put them into a bowl, season them and pour them out onto a sheet pan for roasting. We have also been finding ways to incorporate other lessons into our cooking routines. “How many eggs did we put in the bowl?” “What colors do you see on the pan?” Not to mention she is learning how to follow directions. All of this learning is happening while helping to get dinner on the table. This is what we call a Win-Win situation, my friends!

Tips:

You can absolutely roast these vegetables the night before you plan to serve the bisque and then blend everything together when you’re ready to eat it. Store those veggies in a sealed container in the fridge. However, since the vegetables will be cold rather than hot from the oven, you might need to pour the blended bisque into a pot and warm it over the stovetop or in a crockpot before serving it.
If you’re making this for a bigger crowd, double the ingredients. You can still roast all the vegetables at the same time but it won’t all fit in the blender at once. Blend what you can then pour it into a large pot and repeat this until everything is in the pot. Stir it all together with a large spoon or whisk until fully incorporated.

ROASTED VEGETABLE BISQUE

The perfect dish to warm you up on a cold evening.

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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

1 cup Raw cashews
1 large head Cauliflower, cut into florets
4 cloves Garlic, unpeeled
2 Medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1 Medium yellow onion, sliced
2 Large red bell peppers, seeded and cut into large pieces
Olive oil for drizzling
Salt & pepper to taste
3 Tablespoons Red miso paste
1/2 teaspoon Ground cumin
1 Tablespoon Sriracha
2 cups Vegetable broth (more if you want to thin the bisque out a bit)
Croutons & chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Place cashews in a bowl of water and let soak. While cashews are soaking, put cauliflower, garlic and carrots in a large bowl. Drizzle bowl of vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix until evenly coated then spread evenly on a sheet pan. Place onion and peppers in the bowl used for vegetables then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix until evenly coated then spread evenly on a second sheet pan. Place both sheet pans in the oven and roast vegetables 20-30 minutes or until they are tender and edges start to brown. Note that the onion and peppers are likely to be done earlier than the other vegetables.
Drain and rinse cashews then place them in a high-powered blender. Peel roasted garlic cloves add them to the blender along with all of the vegetables. Add miso, cumin, sriracha and vegetable broth to blender. Blend on high until smooth and creamy. Garnish with croutons and parsley.

Roasted Vegetables with Lemon Dressing

October 7, 2017 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Easy, healthy and delicious. That is what I love about roasted vegetables but let’s get real here, I’m over the boring potatoes or broccoli. I still need easy but I also need variety both for my palette and my sanity. Why not experiment with a variety of vegetables? I really don’t think you can go wrong with roasting any vegetable out there. My latest vegetable obsession is asparagus so I sometimes add extra of it in this dish. Feel free to adjust quantities based on what is a favorite in your household.

Tips:

Watch the pine nuts carefully as you toast them, they burn easily.
Depending on how evenly your oven cooks, you might want to rotate the pan half way through the roasting process.

Roasted Vegetables with Lemon Dressing

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus cut into 1” pieces (discard stem end pieces)

1 large red bell pepper diced into bite size pieces

1 large zucchini, sliced and quartered (or two small zucchini, sliced and halved)

1 ½ cups matchstick carrots

1 medium shallot, chopped

1 ½ teaspoons garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Salt & ground black pepper

1/3 cup pine nuts

Dressing:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 1 medium lemon

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh basil

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Place all vegetables in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. Stir ingredients until evenly coated with olive oil. Spread vegetable mixture onto prepared cookie sheet. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.

While vegetables are roasting, place pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat. Stir nuts in pan until they are slightly brown and aromatic then remove from heat.

In a small bowl, mix all dressing ingredients.

When vegetables are finished roasting, put them back in the large bowl. Pour in the dressing and add the pine nuts. Stir until all ingredients are evenly coated in the dressing.

Lemon Roasted Broccoli

July 14, 2017 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

When I was pregnant I couldn’t get enough broccoli. I would eat it any way I could get it – raw, steamed, roasted, mixed into another dish. Of course, the rest of my cravings weren’t quite as healthy so I tried to embrace this one as much as often as possible. As I was reaching the end of the third trimester I just couldn’t stay on my feet long enough to make a full dinner so I started coming up with easier, faster recipes to satisfy the cravings. I suppose it could have been the crazy hormones that guided me to experiment with different flavors. However, I still find myself enjoying this broccoli recipe post-pregnancy.

I’ve had a theory for a while now that whatever food you crave while you’re pregnant, your child will also enjoy. My daughter is not proving my theory wrong. She is a huge fan of green vegetables, including broccoli. I almost hesitate to make that statement here for fear of jinxing myself. She’s starting to be a picky eater at home but thankfully she’ll still eat peas and broccoli almost any day of the week. For this recipe, I really enjoy the red pepper flakes but they are definitely too spicy for my little one. I tend to sprinkle the red pepper flakes on half the broccoli after spreading it onto the sheet pan rather than mixing it into the bowl. This way she gets her portion spice free and I still get that extra flavor I crave.

Tips:

I saved myself the time it takes to cut the broccoli by using a 12oz bag of broccoli florets. According to the nutrition information on the back of the bag, it is already 4 cups.
The red pepper flakes add a pretty mild kick of flavor but if you aren’t a fan of heat at any level just leave that ingredient out.

LEMON ROASTED BROCCOLI

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Servings 4

Ingredients

4 cups broccoli florettes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1 small lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, stirring until broccoli is evenly coated. Pour broccoli onto a sheet pan and roast 10-12 minutes or until edges of broccoli are slightly crispy. Serve warm.