Roasted Veggies, Part Two

I recently explored Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families - Even Yours by James Beard Award winning chef Art Smith. I choose several recipes that included roasted vegetables, which I wrote about here.

The cookbook begins with a quiz that suggests recipes that suit your cooking style. I definitely fit the profile of the "seasoned and careful cook." I love fresh vegetables, enjoy reading and trying new recipes, and don't shy away from most any challenge in the kitchen (hello Alinea cookbook, I'm talking to you.) The Chopped Grilled Vegetable Salad on page 120 was suggested under the soup and salads category for the seasoned cook.

I'm not sure why it's a "seasoned cook" kind of recipe. I think just about anybody could whip this up. Then again, I've been known to make my own chicken broth and gnocchi, so I suppose not everybody could roast some veggies. Don't be intimidated by this salad; it's certainly not rocket science.

Following the directions for roasting vegetables I gave earlier, you could also grill these with no problem. For this group of vegetables, use a favorite bottled (or hand made) salad dressing. I choose Girard's robust Champagne salad dressing and lavishly tossed the chopped red bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, and asparagus, then settled the vegetables into the pan for roasting. If you use eggplant, be sure to chop, salt and let sit for an hour in a colander; drain with cold water before use. After roasting or grilling, allow the vegetables to cool thoroughly.

Vegetables Before Roasting

Choose and prepare your salad greens, then toss with more of the same salad dressing you used to coat the vegetables. The recipe suggests barbecued tofu, but I used rotisserie chicken breast.  Scatter on some cheddar cheese and almonds, and there's dinner.

Grilled, err, Roasted Vegetable Salad

Except...

What's that funny smell?

If you leave the salad in the bag too long, it smells and tastes funny. It's a nice picture, but I didn't eat the salad that way. Instead, I trashed the lettuce - it was just too far along the trail towards compost for me to eat. I piled the salad onto a smaller plate, added slices of chicken, and used salad dressing as dipping sauce. Not as pretty, but still delicious!