Roasted October Salad

An easy batch-cooking vegan recipe full of seasonal veg, textures and flavour: it's my roasted October salad.

I come back to this roasted October salad recipe each year, it's definitely one of my favourites! It's extremely easy to make and great for batch cooking on a Sunday ready for quick weekday lunches, I used to make it all the time at Uni.

It just takes a fair bit of chopping and roasting but that's it, and easy to swap out for other vegetables as the seasons change.

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Ingredients (serves 3):

1/2 butternut squash

1 Tbsp EVOO

2 tsp ras el-hanout

1 pinch of salt

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

4 red onions

1 Tbsp EVOO

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1 aubergine

1 tsp EVOO

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1 can chickpeas

2 tsp EVOO

1 tsp cinnamon

2 pinches of salt

250g red grapes

1 tsp EVOO

2 pinches of sea salt

Dressing:

2 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp water

1 lemon

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of cumin

+ Roasting juices from the grapes

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Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degC

2. Cut the butternut squash in half, deseed and chop into 1-inch thick slices

3. OPTIONAL LOW WASTE - Rinse the seeds, dry them on a tea towel, lay on a baking sheet with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, bake for 15 minutes and save to use as a topper or a snack

4. Peel and quarter the red onions, chop the aubergine into bitesize pieces

5. Drain the chickpeas (check out my YouTube channel for a Whisky Sour recipe using the chickpea water)

6. Coat the chickpeas in the olive oil, salt and cinnamon then lay out flat on a baking tray

7. Coat the aubergines with the olive oil salt and cumin and lay out onto a baking tray, do the same with the onion making sure to add a little bit of chilli

8. In a bowl, mix the spices for the butternut squash with the olive oil: cumin seeds, ras el-hanout and salt. Dress the butternut squash slices in the flavoured oil and lay out on their own baking sheet

9. Finally in another baking tray place the grapes and drizzle with a bit of olive oil and salt

10. Put everything in the oven, if it fits..., the chickpeas and squash will need 45 minutes and the rest an hour

11. Make the dressing with whisking the ingredients together in a bowl, add more water if the tahini congeals too much, the aim is to achieve a creamy consistency

12. Assemble all elements together and voilà, enjoy!

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Detailed Video: