Roasted Vegetable Salad

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This is a sheet pan salad because the main ingredients—cauliflower, sweet potatoes and carrots—roast together on a couple of pans. Even though you make the dressing and the couscous outside the oven, the prep is still very simple.

Not all salads require lettuce. If you’re a salad person, there’s something so exciting about changing your routine. Salads without leafy greens make great leftovers because you don’t have to worry about them wilting.

Think of this recipe as a two for one because it can be salad and a vegetable side dish. Plus you can serve it cold or at room temperature with lots of different main dishes.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Cauliflower: Choose a head of cauliflower that feels heavy for its size and doesn’t have any dark spots. You can use a white, orange, purple or green one. Also, slice the cauliflower, so you have florets with flat sides that will touch the hot pan, giving them more opportunity to brown.
• Sweet potatoes: The recipe calls for 1 pound, which is about 2 medium sweet potatoes. Peel the potatoes before you dice them. You can substitute with butternut squash.
• Carrots: You can use all orange carrots, but if you can find rainbow carrots go with them for their beautiful colors. Fresh carrots should be firm and not limp.
• Spices: I season the vegetables with cumin, paprika, sumac, kosher salt and black pepper.
• Couscous is actually pasta that’s made from semolina flour. (I still refer to it a a grain.) It’s an ingredient commonly found in North African cuisine.
• Scallions give the salad delicate onion flavor. They aren’t overpowering and are somewhere in between red onions and herbs.
• Parsley: You will need 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs. You can substitute with cilantro or a mix of both.
• Pistachios are great with the spice mix in the veggie marinade. You can substitute with chopped almonds or walnuts.
• Feta cheese adds a nice salty, creamy accent. You can swap with crumbled goat cheese.
• Lemon vinaigrette: It’s a combination of garlic, mustard, salt, pepper and olive oil. Use extra virgin olive oil for the best taste. (You also toss the veggies in oil when roasting them.)

Optional Additions

You can add more or one of the following to the salad:

• Avocado: Diced will work best with the size of the roasted veggies
• Greens: Either chopped kale leaves or baby spinach 
• Chickpeas or white beans make the salad even more filling

How To Make This Roasted Vegetable Salad

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

1. Marinate the vegetables. Mix the cumin, paprika, sumac, salt, pepper and oil in a big bowl. Then stir in the cauliflower, sweet potatoes and carrots.

2. Spread the veggies across 2 baking sheets They should be in a single layer.

3. Roast the vegetables until they are tender in the middle and lightly browned on the outside, about 30-35 minutes. Toss the vegetables halfway through roasting and rotate the baking sheets.

4. Make the couscous. Combine the grains with the boiling water in a bowl and cover. Let stand for 5 minutes. Comb the couscous with a fork to break up clumps.

5. Make the vinaigrette. Whisk together the garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil in small bowl.

6. Assemble the salad. In a large bowl, combine the couscous, roasted vegetables, scallions, fresh parsley, pistachios and feta. Pour in the dressing and toss to combine.

Recipe Tips

• Use 2 sheet pans. Don’t be tempted to crowd all the veggies on one pan. They will end up steaming instead of roasting.
• Don’t line the pan. The oil in the marinade is enough to keep the sweet potatoes, cauliflower and carrots from sticking. The will veggies brown better when they make direct contact with the pan.
• Use fresh lemon juice in the dressing. Bottled juice has all sorts of other ingredients and preservatives. The best taste is when you squeeze a lemon.
• Don’t let the couscous sit too long before drag a fork through it. The couscous will absorb the boiling water in 5 minutes. Comb it right after that to get rid of any clumps.