Roast vegetable salad with sour cream tahini dressing
The tangy-creamy-nutty dressing makes the roast vegetables even more delicious. Can be made ahead, and served hot, warm or at room temperature.
Ingredients:
Marinade:
¼ cup olive oil (or other mild flavoured vegetable oil of your choice)
2 tablespoons soya sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Vegetables to roast:
1 x medium butternut pumpkin
1 x medium broccoli
2 x medium red onions
Tahini sour cream dressing:
80g (¼ cup) tahini
80g (¼ cup) Angel Food sour cream
100 ml water
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon black salt (or regular salt)
Garnish suggestions:
Pomegranate seeds
Dried cranberries
Green or red grapes, fresh or roasted
Toasted pumpkin seeds
Almond flakes
Crumbled Angel Food feta
Instructions
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Prepare the butternut squash first, because it will take longest to cook. Trim the ends off, then cut in half just where the neck starts to wide out. Quarter the top section and peel, then cute into cubes. Quarter the bottom section, scoop out the seeds, peel and cube.
3. Measure the marinade ingredients (oil, soya sauce, vinegar and smoked paprika) into a large bowl and toss the butternut cubes in this. Lift the cubes out of the marinade on to a baking sheet: life them with a slotted spoon so the excess marinade drains off.
4. Lower the oven temperature to 180°C and put the butternut tray in.
5. Prepare the onion: trim the top and the root end but be careful not to completely remove the central part which holds the onion together. Remove any layers of dry skin. Place on a chopping board upside down and cut carefully into 8 segments: cutting it upside down means you can see that you have some of the central core in each segment, so the wedges will hold together. Toss the segments gently in the marinade and then lift them on to the second baking tray. Arrange them on one half of the tray, leaving room for the broccoli, and put them in the oven.
6. Lastly, prepare the broccoli: cut into bite-size florets, toss in the marinade and lift on to the second oven tray.
7. Roast until cooked through: you should be able see some caramelisation too. The vegetables will require different cooking times, so check them all regularly.
8. Make the dressing: measure tahini, sour cream, vinegar, water sugar and salt into a jug or bowl. Stir with a fork or whisk to combine. Taste for seasoning and adjust as you like. You may also want to add a little more water if the sauce is too thick.
9. To serve: arrange the roast vegetables on a large platter (or in a bowl, but you get more visual vava-voom on a large white plate!) and top with garnish of your choice. Serve the dressing in a jug or bowl on the side, or pour it over the salad before serving if you prefer.
Notes:
The salad can be served hot, warm or at room temperature. You can roast the vegetables and make the dressing a couple of days ahead – keep them in the fridge, of course, but bring them up at least to room temperature before serving.
If you don’t have smoked paprika but still want the slight smoky flavour, add a couple of drops of liquid smoke to the marinade.
Tahini can be a bit annoying to get out of the jar and to measure! Weighing it out, rather than measuring by volume, saves a bit of hassle and mess. It always separates in the jar but don’t worry about that – just dig a spoon down into the centre of the jar so you get some of the drier tahini lower down and some of the oil at the top.
I like garnishing this with pomegranate seeds or grapes because the jewel-like colour and the fresh sweet flavour burst really pop with the roast vegetables.
