Roasted Vegetable Salad with Zesty Avocado Dressing

Even the crispest, coolest salad can get real boring, real quick, regardless of how hot it is outside.  Roasted vegetables have a distinct flavor that can switch things up and help keep you on your healthy eating path instead of getting sick of the same salad every day.  Plus cooked vegetables offer different forms of nutrients.  As for the avocado dressing… it’s simple and delicious to the max no matter what you put it on!

Ingredients:

3 Capsicums, Sliced
1 425 mL Can Black Beans
8-12 Carrots, Chopped
8-10 Celery Stalks, Chopped
350 mL Corn Kernels
8 Cloves Garlic, Chopped
1 Onion, Chopped
½ Red (Purple) Cabbage, Chopped
175 mL Salsa
2 Summer Squash
60 mL Sunflower Oil
350 mL Tomatoes, Chopped
Sauce Ingredients:

1 Large Avocado
1 Cup Fresh Coriander, Chopped
1 Lime
Roasted Veggie Directions:
Preheat oven to 177°C (350°F)
Wash and chop all vegetables to liking.
Rinse beans until bubbles are gone.
Line baking sheet with foil.
Mix beans, corn, ½ onion and the salsa. Line up on sheet. It really doesn’t matter if you line up veggies or pile them all on. Important thing is that everything gets down on the sheet and evenly spread out for even roasting.
Working through vegetables in order you see fit, place veggies in mixing bowl, drizzle ½ tsp. sunflower oil, add ½ chopped clove of garlic and mix. Line up on cooking sheet.
You could also throw all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix and spread evenly over cooking sheet. Entirely up to you.
Roast in oven for 35 minutes. Chill on counter for 30 minutes and place in fridge to finish cooling for another hour.

Sauce Directions:
Scoop entire contents of avocado and lime into blender.
Add coriander.
Blend until creamy and awesome.

Serving It Up:

There are 2 great ways to serve up this salad:
Buffet style – set out the chilled vegetables still on cooking sheet and tell everyone to eat up.
Mixed – throw all the roast veggies in a large mixing bowl, add sauce and stir.

Variations

Grill Variation:
This recipe is divine on the grill as well! Make sure to choose the freshest corn on the cob possible. Once picked the carbohydrate structure in corn begins to transition from sweet natural sugars to fiber. Older the corn, the less flavor it has and courser texture.
Chop all your veggies a little bigger to prevent them falling through the grill.
Create a foil pouch for the beans, onions and salsa.
Grill away.

Campfire Variation:

This recipe can be cooked straight up over an open fire. All the best foods on earth can be.

Prep veggies and beans. Mix everything together. Place in container that will actually fit in your cooler.
Make sauce, but add extra ½ lime to keep it fresh and store with the pit of the avocado. Place in storage container.
Pre-make 8 to 10 foil pouches.
Once fire has gone long enough to produce embers, place filled foil pouches on grill over fire.
Roast for 20 minutes. Flip. Roast for another 20.
Serve warm with cold sauce. Absolute perfection.
Mason Jar Variation:

This recipe is on the dense and filling side. A 2 cup mason jar is going to be your best bet regardless of cooking method used.

You can either take the time to line up all the vegetables to make a work of art or you can mix the veggies and sauce and throw it in the jar.

If you opt for the pretty version, know that the sauce may brown a bit. Squeezing ¼ to ½ lime into each filled mason jar can prevent browning and kick the flavor up a notch.

This recipe was originally posted on NutritionSheila.com.