Salad Bowl with Roasted Veggies and Tahini Dressing + Pro- and Pre-biotics | Vegan

Here’s another awesome, simple, healthy, but fast dinner for your Meatless Monday night dinner!

It mixes raw greens and oven-roasted veggies, making it a great end-of-summer meal when cooler weather might be making its way into our lives… and also a yummy way to use some of the local fall harvest in your area.

It’s also a nice way to introduce various flavours like tahini and sauerkraut. I highly recommend buying a naturally fermented sauerkraut and not a pasteurized version, or even one made with added cultures. You’ll need to read the label carefully to find one, and most likely go into a health food store, but it’s worth the extra step. Naturally fermented sauerkraut contain important pro- and pre-biotics, both essential to a healthy digestive system and a healthy body and mind overall. We often hear of probiotics but not very often about prebiotics, but both are equally important since one provides us with healthy gut bacteria and the other feeds the healthy bacteria that live in our gut naturally. We need to take care of both, and eating naturally fermented food like sauerkraut is a great way to naturally maintain our health. Having a healthy gut flora has recently been linked to helping with mental issues and depression, so it’s much more important than even just our digestive system.

(For a great article by one of my favourite author, read “Some of my best friends are germs”, by Michael Pollan, published in The New York Times Magazine)

Enjoy!

ECP xo

This recipe will give you 2 or 3 meal portions.

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Salad Bowl with Roasted Veggies and Tahini Dressing + Pro- and Pre-biotics | Vegan

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Canadian

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 2 servings

A simple and delicious recipe for a salad bowl with roasted veggies and tahini dressing, with natural probiotics

Ingredients

• 4 small organic potatoes cut into bite-size chunks
• 2 carrots cut into sticks
• 1 organic sweet potato (medium size) cut into bite-size cubes
• 1/3 cup organic cherry tomatoes cut in half
• 1/2 organic zucchini (yellow or green, or patty pan), cut in slices and quartered
• 398 ml chickpeas (1 regular size can) drained
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1.5 cups organic lettuce or baby greens/Mesclun, washed and dry
• 1/4 cup naturally fermented sauerkraut
• 2 tsp herbes de Provence
• 1 tsp ground paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 3 Tbsp organic tahini
• 1/4 cup olive oil + extra for cooking
• 1 lemon (large)
• 2 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix the carrot sticks with a pinch of sea salt, some pepper (optional), a pinch of Herbes de Provence herb mix, and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix well, and spread on a large cookie baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, keeping enough room for the potatoes.
2. In that same bowl, do the same with the baby potato chunks, and ad a pinch of paprika as well as the others and oil drizzle. Evenly spread on the baking sheet.
3. In the same bowl, ad the sweet potato chunks and mix with paprika, cinnamon, sea salt, pepper, and oil. Mix and put on baking sheet.
4. Bake all of this at 425F for about 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of your chunks). Keep an eye on it after 15 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn.
5. In a large pan over medium heat, sauté the zucchini slices with a bit of olive oil until they start to brown to your liking, then add the minced garlic and chickpeas and sauté for a few more minutes.
6. In the meantime, prepare the dressing by mixing the tahini, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and ground pepper. Set aside.
7. Distribute all the components into 2 or 3 large plates/bowls (lettuce, tomatoes, roasted potatoes - 2 kinds -, roasted carrots, chickpea & zucchini, and sauerkraut) and drizzle generously with the tahini dressing.
8. Enjoy immediately

Note: I do not believe anyone should worry about counting calories, but here is the nutritional information for one serving
Calories: 1076kcal | Fat: 45g | Saturated fat: 6g | Sodium: 275mg | Potassium: 3208mg | Carbohydrates: 143g | Fiber: 34g | Sugar: 19g | Protein: 36g | Vitamin A: 21865% | Vitamin C: 105.1% | Calcium: 362% | Iron: 23.9%