Roasted Florets & Charred Pepper Salad

C'est encore la saison de test 😰. Et nous sommes devenus très stressés que nous avons commencé à avoir des cauchemars. La nuit dernière, j'ai dû réveiller Le Mari, Mon Bou, parce qu'il hyperventilait dans son sommeil mdrrrrr 😂

Et donc, excusez-moi svp, pendant que je prends une petite pause pour étudier pour le test coréen. 

Souhaite moi bonne chance!! 🙏👌

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U know, every time I tell anyone that I love salads, they immediately assume I'm some kind of clean-eating gym-obsessed health-freak. And then they look me over and u can see the confusion, well, because, I don't quite look the part of a clean-eating, gym-obsessed, health-nut. I do love salads, but most definitely not the conventional exemplar of barely dressed mesclun greens one imagines when "salads" are mentioned; no no no no not at all, the salads I'm referring to are a vibrant contrast of the hot and cold, soft and crunchy, sumptuously dressed and properly substantive as a one-dish meal. 

 

Besides, my forever love for trashy junk food and alcohol is an immediate disqualifier of any sort of diet 😝. 

 

I, too, used to hate vegetables (growing up, I subsisted on a regime of fried chicken wings and roti prata with sugar #yaytobeingspoiledbygrandparents), so I completely understand the disdain for vegetables, which many households tend to serve mushy and boiled, or plain ol' raw leaves which really epitomizes the term "eating grass". 

 

But the secret to developing a love for vegetables is to roast them, to coax those buttery nutty flavours out; and make the dish as colourful as possible, u know, eat the colours of the rainbow and all that; there's something to making food beautiful to whet the appetite. And this is how I get the most recalcitrant of my vegetable-hating friends to not just eat their greens, but to actually like their greens. 

 

SO.... this was a salad that I'd strewn together that somehow ended up carb-less and vegetarian, an inadvertent #MeatlessMonday of sorts, because I was clearing the fridge and found no meat to supplement. The broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers were a little "mature" so I roasted them to disguise their browns. I also fried up some baby portobellos, and set them all on a base of fresh arugula. Ahhh, arugula (aka rocket leaves)...it's possibly my favourite salad green ever, its peppery flavour is just so deliciously refreshing. And to leave the focus on the toasty roasted vegetables and zesty rocket, I kept the dressing simple with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

 

Ingredients (feeds 2):

 

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets, about 5 cups

1 head broccoli, cut into florets, about 5 cups

1 red pepper, charred and skin removed, sliced into 1" cubes

500gm cremini, sliced

1 yellow pepper, charred and skin removed, sliced into 1" squares

extra virgin olive oil "EVOO"

1 box arugula leaves, about 10 cups unpacked

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt

 

 

Directions:

 

1) Toss cauliflower and broccoli in about 2 tbsp EVOO, salting as you go; set them out on a baking tray and roast at 220C for about 35-40 minutes, increasing the oven temp to 230C for the last 5 minutes to really get those edges browned.

2) Fry cremini in pre-heated pan with minced garlic and about 2 tbsp EVOO, on medium-high heat until water released from mushrooms is cooked off, about 15 minutes.

3) Assembly time: set out arugula at the bottom, and top with roasted broccoli and cauliflower, alternating with fried mushrooms and blistered peppers, and drizzle EVOO as liberally as you'd like.