Roast vegetable salad with crispy Moroccan chickpeas

 

Meat free meals don’t have to be boring.  In fact, they are often anything but boring.  This recipe for roast vegetable salad with crispy Moroccan chickpeas combines a range of gorgeous flavours and textures.  The vegetables are roasted in olive oil and garlic and the chickpeas coated in delicious moroccan flavours.  This would make a light meal, but you can top it up by adding some halloumi cheese or a poached egg.

This recipe contains a mixture of starchy and non starchy vegetables, and provides a wide range of antioxidants and nutrients. Red onions contain anthocyanins.  Research suggests that anthocyanins may have a wide variety of health benefits including reducing risk of certain cancers and diabetes and can help protect against signs of ageing (1).  The orange vegetables contain carotenoids.  Our body converts these to vitamin A, but they are also thought to have other beneficial effects. may help to slow the ageing process, reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, improve lung function and help keep skin healthy although more reaserch is needed

Chickpeas are one of my favourite legumes.  They’re very versatile and work well with lots of flavours.  You can buy them dry then soak and cook them which is really economical since they’re so cheap, but I find canned ones are more convenient and relatively cheap.  A can of organic chickpeas is $1.80 at my local supermarket.

Here’s the recipe:

Makes 2-3 serves.

Ingredients

3 carrots
1 large wedge of pumpkin
1 orange kumara
1 small purple kumara
1 large potato
2 red onions
4 large cloves of garlic
2 springs of Rosemary
1 tin of chickpeas
2 teaspoons Moroccan seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 sundried tomatoes, chopped

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.  Peel the carrots and slice lengthwise, then lengthwise again. Cut these carrot sticks in half horizontally. Peel the pumpkin and kumara and cut into even sized pieces.  Wash the potato and cut into same sized pieces as the other vegetables.  Peel the onions and cut into wedges.  Place the vegetables on an oven tray.   Finely chop the garlic cloves and sprinkle on top.  Remove the rosemary leaves from the stem and sprinkle over the vegetables.  Drizzle over 1 tablespoon of olive oil and toss the vegetables around to coat in oil.

Place in the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly golden.   Once cooked, turn the oven off and leave the vegetables in the oven with the door slightly ajar to keep them warm whilst you prepare the chickpeas.   Drain and rinse chickpeas. Place a pan on an element over a medium heat.  Add the tablespoon of oil, and once hot, add the chickpeas. Sprinkle over the Moroccan seasoning.  Sir the chickpeas regularly for 3-5 minutes, until they are warmed through and slightly crispy.

Take the roasted vegetables from the oven and add the chickpeas and sundried tomatoes.  Serve with some steamed greens and for a more filling meal, slices of pan fried halloumi or a poached egg.