You guys. This is hardly a recipe, but I had to share. It’s one of those side dishes that tastes so good and has so much flavor that whoever you are feeding has nooo idea how easy it was. This happened when one of our friends was staying with us a couple weeks ago. He kept asking me what I did to these veggies to make them so good and was amazed when I told him the short list of ingredients. Pesto is one of those things that adds so much flavor to a dish and I like to make it a lot when basil is fresh. We have a basil plant on our porch right now and I have a feeling this Texas weather will keep it alive almost year round! Pesto for all.
If you aren’t familiar with pesto, it’s an Italian sauce traditionally made with fresh basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and cheese. Pesto is versatile and fun to play with depending on what you have on hand and mine is always changing. One thing I never seem to add though is cheese and it still works and doesn’t taste like anything is missing. This particular pesto recipe doesn’t call for any type of nut, but toasted pine nuts or cashews would be great.
I love roasting veggies for a lot of reasons. It cleans out my fridge and cleans off my counter, it’s obviously a really healthy dish and you get to rough chop all your veggies! Nothing precise and uniform here. I love cooking, but sometimes the dishes that require everything to be finely diced and perfect (never happens) just exhaust me.
Unfortunately the “after” photos turned out really badly because I didn’t have enough light when I took them. Why is the sun going down around 7pm already?! I wasn’t prepared for it, and these sad post-bake photos show it. But, you get the idea of what your veggies will look like after they are roasted and tossed with your flavorful pesto.
We served our veggies with grilled pesto chicken, but topping them with a fried egg would be good too. Enjoy this versatile, easy dish!
- For the Roasted Veggies
- 1 head cauliflower - florets removed and chopped
- 1 head broccoli - florets removed and chopped
- 1 sweet potato - chopped
- 1 onion - chopped
- 3 carrots - chopped
- 2 zucchini - chopped
- 1 yellow squash - chopped
- 2 tomatoes - chopped
- 2 golden or red beets - chopped
- 2-3 tbsp coconut oil - melted
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- For the Pesto
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 c olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- juice of half a lemon
- Preheat your oven to 400 F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Chop all of your veggies and place onto the baking sheet
- Coat with the coconut oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder
- Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally
- To make the Pesto
- Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend until combined
- Once the veggies are golden and soft, pour the pesto over the veggies and toss to coat
- The veggies don't need to be chopped into precise, uniform pieces. This is the beauty of roasting veggies - it can be a lazy chop job and saves you a lot of time!
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