Roasted vegetable and bean salad

Written by Guest Post on Wednesday, 02 October 2019.
Tagged: healthy cooking, healthy eating, low carb, low fat, low GI, lunch, nutrition, salad, side-dish

Ready In: 45 minutes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 3

Are you looking for a salad that’s packed with a rainbow of vegetables and is high in fibre, low in carbohydrates, low in fat, and high in protein? This one is all that and more!

This colourful and tasty salad is also low GI, doesn’t need much attention when cooking AND is affordable!

It’s based on vegetables and a can of beans – a useful pantry staple. They’re affordable, can easily be thrown into salads (such as this one), soups or casseroles, and are packed full of nutrition.

Ingredients

1 capsicum, diced into 2-3cm squares
1 zucchini, sliced into 1cm half moons
220 g pumpkin, diced into 2cm cubes
1 red onion, sliced into wedges
2-3 cloves of garlic, wrapped in foil
420 g can 4-bean mix, rinsed and drained
Pepper to taste
FOR THE DRESSING
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp white wine vinegar
TO SERVE
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped

Nutrition per serve

899 kJ (215 Calories), 10 g protein, 8 g fat (including 1 g sat fat), 22 g carbohydrate (including 10 g sugars), 10 g fibre and 90 mg sodium. Read our nutrition rating system.

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Spread the sliced capsicum, zucchini, pumpkin and red onion over the tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with pepper. Place the garlic wrapped in foil on the tray. Roast for 30-35 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked through.
Once the vegetables are cooked, take them out of the oven to let cool.
Unwrap the garlic (be careful as hot steam may come out!), place in a small bowl and mash with a fork.
To the garlic, add the olive oil, Dijon mustard and white wine vinegar. Whisk to make a dressing.
In a large bowl, combine the drained beans, roasted vegetables and parsley. Pour the dressing over the mix and toss well to coat the salad in dressing

Variations

Add a 325 g tin of tuna or salmon, or serve alongside chicken/meat.
Use different herbs e.g. dill, chives or spring onions.
Use vegetables of your choice such as eggplant, sweet potato, carrot (some vegetables may have different roasting times)
Swap Dijon with balsamic for a different dressing
Try cannellini beans, chickpeas, kidney beans or lentils!

Recipe and photo by dietitian Sophie Feng. You can follow her on Instagram at @sophies_foodfeast