Quick & Healthy Recipes – Roasted Veggie Meals

I never had the problem of disliking my veggies. In fact, there are times that I crave for a meal that does not include any meat. However, I realised that it is not easy to find a nutritious vegetarian meal, which is delicious at the same time, especially here in France. This had prompted me to create my own veggie meals for those days when I feel like leaving meat out of my diet.

In this particular article, I would like to share my love of roasted vegetables. The winter season brings us a whole lot of varieties of squash that is perfect for roasting, as this brings out its flavour of natural sweetness!

So here are two recipes I would like to share with you:

1) Roasted pumpkin, cumin and feta pasta

This is inspired from an awesome lunch that I had eaten when I was still living in Kuala Lumpur. The café was a popular brunching place with the usual menu of Big English Breakfast, Omelettes etc. However, being the adventurous foodie, I had ordered this pasta dish that stood out from the menu and, Oooh… I can just feel my saliva dripping when it was served to me.

So here is my version of this dish which I had improvised based on the flavours that suits me:

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 200g pasta of your choice
• ½ of a medium-to-small sized pumpkin
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 5 tablespoon of Feta cheese
• 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• a knob of butter

Steps:

• Pre-heat the oven to around 200C.

• Cut up the pumpkin into cubes and spread them over a roasting tray.

• Spread the shallots, cumin, salt and pepper around the pumpkin.

• Add the olive oil onto the pumpkin and toss all the ingredients well.

• Pop the tray of pumpkin into the oven and let it roast until tender, and stirring occasionally to prevent it from roasting unevenly (around 20 minutes).

• Cook the pasta according to its cooking instructions. Once cook, drain it and place it into a salad bowl, and mix in the knob of butter.

• When the pumpkin is tender, add it into the bowl of pasta and toss to combine.

• Add in the feta and give it a toss before serving.

If you are a fan of fresh basil leaves, you can crush a few up and add them to this dish to give it a more refreshing taste.

2) Roasted Mediterranean Veggies with Quinoa

I like to have light lunches to avoid getting drowsy in the afternoons, especially when I have to attend afternoon lectures or to perform some mundane computer work, and this dish works out very well for me. This can also become a side dish and it pairs well with grilled fish.

The reason I chose to make this dish with quinoa is because of its nutritional value. Firstly, it is gluten-free. Also, it is high in protein, dietary fiber, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and even calcium! This makes it a perfect replacement of dairy products for those who are lactose-intolerant! However, if you are not a fan, you can replace it with either pasta or couscous.

Ingredients (serves two):

• 1 courgette
• 1 aubergine (medium to small size)
• 1 red or green bell pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 6-8 sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 cup of uncooked quinoa
• 1 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• olive oil (enough to cover the vegetables)
• salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200C.

• Chopped up all the vegetables and garlic and spread them over the roasting tray.

• Chopped up the sun-dried tomatoes and crush them up with a blunt object before spreading them amongst the other vegetables.

• Add in the balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and toss them well.

• Cover the ingredients with plenty of olive oil before you put the tray into the oven.Leave it for around 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables are tender/ some edges have turned brown.

• Cook the quinoa according to its cooking instructions.

• Once the vegetables are roasted, scoop them into a salad bowl and let it cool. Leave the leftover oil in the tray in case you need it to add into your dish if it’s too dry.

• Add in the quinoa once it has cooled down and serve.

If you are not a fan of sun-dried tomatoes, and if you are not a strict vegetarian, you might want to replace them with anchovies. The main purpose of either two is to give more flavour to this dish.

So there you go, two very healthy meals for you to try. Both can be eaten either hot or cold, and they are easy to pack in case you would like to have it as an office lunch.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!