Roasted Vegetables with Coconut Curry Pasta

Roasted vegetables = pure bliss

You can roast large amounts of vegetables at a time and use them in multiple dishes for quick week night meals. Try spreading a ready-made pizza crust with pesto and roasted veg, then top with a few blobs of ricotta cheese and bake 'til bubbly, or make your favorite grain (quinoa, farro, rice, etc.) with vegetable or chicken broth and combine with the roasted veg and some crumbly cheese such as feta, OR you could make the following recipe. It is absolutely delicious!

I made it for some young friends without the curry powder and it was equally delicious. 

Roasted Vegetables with Coconut Curry Pasta

Roasted Vegetables:

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.

Fill a 5 1/2 quart bowl with  fall vegetables, cut into evenly-sized chunks (about 2"). You can use any vegetable; I love to include delicata squash (leave the peel on), sweet potato, onion, fennel, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic cloves, carrots and king oyster mushrooms.

Toss veg with 2-3 T of olive oil. Sprinkle generously with Herbs de Provence (or any herb blend), salt, and pepper. Toss again until evenly coated.

Spread veg on large jelly roll pan so that veg don't touch each other. You may have to roast in several batches (I can fit two pans in my oven). Roast for 15 minutes or until bottom of veg is nicely caramelized. Then turn veg to caramelize other side for about 5-10 more minutes and until you can pierce through with a fork.

Set aside the veg in a bowl and try not to eat them all before the rest of the food cooks! You can keep some of the veg aside to make additional recipes or combine it all with the pasta.

Coconut Curry Sauce and Pasta:
1/4 c olive or coconut oil
1/4 c flour
1 can coconut milk
2 c vegetable or chicken broth
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fresh ginger, grated
2 T curry powder (optional)
2 t sriracha sauce (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

1 lb pasta cooked to package instructions
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded (optional)

1. Heat oil in large sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and continue to stir for about 5 minutes. Add coconut milk, broth, garlic, ginger, curry and sriracha. Turn up the heat to medium high and continue to whisk periodically until thickened for about 15 minutes. Pasta can cook while sauce thickens.
2. Drain pasta and combine with sauce in large bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Serve pasta in bowl or plate with roasted vegetables and chicken placed on top.

Curried Lentils with Sage Sausage and Roasted Veggies

This dish started as a "throw everything in the pot that you need to use up" sort of meal. My kids devour it and I've begun to make it on purpose!

Curried Lentils with Sage Sausage and Roasted Veggies

1 lb dried lentils

½ c dried green split peas

½ c dried yellow split peas

water to cover

10 c water with chicken bouillon (or equivalent in boxes; equal parts stock and broth)

2 bay leaves

2 T curry powder

2 t garam marsala

1 T onion powder

approx 5-6 c of roasted veggies, I used the following

1 lg eggplant

3 carrot

3 parsnips

2 bulbs fennel

2 sweet potatoes

1 bunch kale, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 TBS olive oil

1 lb sage ground pork sausage

2 leeks

2 cloves minced garlic

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

¼ to ½ c red quinoa, rinsed

Sort, rinse and drain lentils and split peas. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover pot and turn off heat and let sit for an hour.  Cook sausage with leeks and garlic. Set aside.

Cut up veg into bite-sized pieces and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Roast in 400 oven until caramelized about 1 hour. Turning halfway through. I use this time to soak the beans.

Add broth and stock to soaked beans and bring to boil, and then turn down to simmer. Add curry and onion powder, bay leaves, and garam marsala. Add sausage and leeks.

.

Add kale and chopped garlic.   Add quinoa; cook for at least 15 minutes. After veg finish roasting, add them.

Serve with crusty bread.

Caramelized Onion and Fennel

My good friends, Patti and Jim, introduced me to oven-roasted fennel. It is divine. Here is a way to enjoy that taste from the stove top. The fennel in the CSA this week was harvested much smaller than I am used to seeing. You can use the whole plant!


Caramelized Onion and Fennel

1 onion, cut in half, then in 1/4" slices
2-3 small fennel bulbs with part of the stalks, sliced
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add onions and cook until browned about five minutes. Turn down heat to low and add fennel and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking and stirring for about 45 minutes, adding a few drops of water as necessary to prevent sticking.