roasted veggie pasta salad

i love to get up a little earlier in the morning to make this pasta dish. gives it plenty of time to sit in the fridge while i’m at work all day - letting the flavors have time to shake hands and really get to know each other! whether you make it earlier in the day and eat it later, or make it and eat it right away - it’s all good!

"dressing” (it’s more like pesto, perhaps!):

5 cloves of garlic, peeled & roasted

2 sun-dried tomatoes (the kind that are packed in oil)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp olive oil (for drizzling)

10 fresh basil leaves

pasta:

1 box of organic whole wheat rotini or penne pasta (or any kind of pasta you prefer!)

veggies (mmmmm!) & other goodies:

1 eggplant, chopped into bite size chunks

1 bunch of asparagus, chopped into 2” pieces

1 yellow or red bell pepper, chopped

½ cup chopped roasted red peppers

½ cup chopped artichokes (i chop up the jarred marinated kind)

sea salt, just a pinch or two

cooking oil spray (we like the organic olive oil the best!)

 

what’s needed:

aluminum foil

cookie sheet

food processor

large pot

large serving bowl (optional)

large sauce pan lid

small oven safe tray (i use the little tray that came with my toaster oven!)

also read:

what’cha gotta do:

peel the garlic cloves and place them in the center of a 5”x5” square of aluminum foil (you can save the other piece of the foil for more future garlic roasting!). now drizzle the teaspoon of olive oil over the cloves and close up the foil around the them – creating a little packet of garlic goodness. place the garlic foil packet on your little tray and place all of it in the oven on 350 degrees (no need to preheat here). let that cook (for about 15-20 minutes or so) while you start all the other good stuff…

now put a pot of water on the stove and get that water boiling!

while you’re waiting for your water to start boiling get a head start on chopp’n up all those delicious veggies into the sizes specified above.

once your water is boiling throw in your pasta and cook it up how ya like it (we like ours al dente – so we cook it for about 9-10 minutes.) once your pasta is finished cooking drain the water off and rinse the pasta with cold water (you can also collect the old pasta water and the rinsing water and save it for watering some plants!). leave the pasta in the colander to cool off a little more while you cook your veggies!

take your chopped eggplant, chopped asparagus, and cut up bell pepper (not the roasted red peppers – the fresh bell pepper!) and place them all on a large cookie sheet that’s been sprayed with a little oil (i like to use organic olive oil cooking spray). sprinkle a pinch or two of sea salt over the veggies and mix them all up so you get that sea salt evenly distributed. make sure to lay the veggies out flat so they're not overcrowding and on top of each other, and spray just a little of the cooking oil (just a wee bit!) over the veggies.

by this time your garlic should be pretty well roasted. take the garlic foil pack out and carefully open it up – it’ll be pretty hot in there – so watch out! give your garlic and poke with a knife (you can use your finger, if you dare) and if it’s squishy and easy to poke through it’s roasted and good to go! if it’s not quite done let it finish cooking (about 5 minutes more) and then remove from the oven. set aside for a few minutes.

jack up the oven to 425 degrees and put the cookie sheet loaded with those veggies in for 15 minutes.

while your veggies are cooking toss the roasted garlic and the 3 tbsp of olive oil in a food processor and give it a whirl! make sure to get that garlic chopped up really well and then add in your 2 sun-dried tomatoes and pulse it some more. once you’ve chopped it all up throw in your fresh basil leaves and give it just a few last pulses. set aside.

after cooking the veggies for 15 minutes take ‘em out and mix ‘em up a bit! they should be getting nice and brown. pop them back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

take the cooled pasta and toss it back in the large pot you used to cook it in. once your veggies are all cooked up throw them all in there, as well as the artichokes, and those roasted red peppers you chopped up, too. gently mix the veggies and pasta as you drizzle the dressing over all of it. keep gently mixing everything until you feel like it’s well coated.

last step: transfer to a large serving bowl (if you want to) and cover (i use a large sauce pan lid instead of plastic wrap! less waste!) and refrigerate for a few hours. gobble up later – or gobble it up now!

this recipe makes a bunch – it’s also damn tasty as leftovers for the next day or two. and if you want to add on some more awesomeness - just toast up some pine nuts, sprinkle a few on top, and enjoy!

Articles

Carrot cake sandwich cookies of gloriousness!

oven baked tofu & more local awesomeness!

Vegan Mexican Chopped Salad With Avocado

easy peasy quinoa and beans bowl

Bourbon-maple bbq sauce vegan recipe