Welcome to first installment of my weekly Sunday Bites & Sips column! One of my New Years Resolutions was to cook at least once a week. If you watched my 16 Random Facts About Me video, you already know that it took me over 30 years to try cooking. So I thought it would be fun to bring you along on my culinary journey.

The way I’ve been learning how to cook is through Pinterest. I save recipes to my Yum Dot Com board and combine different techniques. Today’s recipe was inspired by an Easy Roasted Vegetable with Balsamic Syrup recipe from Kevin is Cooking.  While roasted veggies are a great side dish, I wanted to figure out how to make them into a full meal. So I created a delicious salad that even non-vegetarians will love. My step-dad, a forever meat and potatoes man, even finished his whole plate with a smile. A bonus? It’s such an easy clean up. You don’t even have to wash the pan!

Easy Roasted Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese and Arugula

Ingredients

• 8 cups of assorted chopped vegetables
• arugula
• pomegranate seeds
• crumbled goat cheese
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 1/2 tbsp balsamic vineagar
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• salt and pepper

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (I used a 17 x 11 pan)
• Cut up veggies and put in a large plastic bag. Add in the olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Mix the veggies in the bag then transfer to baking sheet and put in oven for 40 minutes.
• In a large bowl, mix the balsamic vinegar and honey and stir in with the veggies after you take them out of the oven.
• Drizzle plated arugula with olive oil and sprinkle on a layer of goat cheese.
• Add roasted veggies on top of cheese.
• Sprinkle another layer of goat cheese and top with pomegranate seeds. I added edible flowers for presentation but the veggies are so colorful they look beautiful on their own!

Tips

• What Veggies To Use: I recommend doing a mixture of flower veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, something heartier like squash or sweet potatoes and root vegetables. I just love the look and taste of rainbow carrots!
• How to Save Time: There’s no shame in getting pre-cut vegetables! When I shot this recipe, I cut up the carrots but everything else came already chopped in bags at the grocery store.
• Store for Later: The leftover vegetables can be heated up and served over a salad again. But I prefer to eat them cold the next day for lunch. It can also be a healthy snack if you work from home.

If you try out this recipe I’d love to hear what you think! It’s become a personal favorite so I hope you love it as much as I do!

Plates: Pottery Barn
Oven Mitts: Kate Spade
Rings: Gorjana and Catherine Weitzman
Bracelet: Gorjana