Roasted Vegetables | Veg Box Recipes with Basil & Tom’s

Our second recipe for making the most out of your veg box (in collaboration with Basil & Tom’s, Acton’s wonderful community greengrocer) is a brilliantly simple one pan roast recipe that gives you two for the price of one – a deeply flavoured freezer friendly sauce with ‘hidden veg’ that the whole family will love, and some delicious roasted vegetables to use over the course of the week to create a myriad lunches and suppers.

Roasted Vegetables

• Turn your oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan) and line your largest roasting pan with baking parchment.
• Cut which ever root vegetables you have (we used carrots, red onions, butternut) into similar sized pieces – long and thin with some sharp pointy edges give the best caramelisation and looks nicest in the final dish (roll cutting helps here).
• Place in whole garlic cloves in their skins, salt and pepper and some woody herbs like thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage (bear in mind rosemary and sage will have very pronounced Meditteranean flavours so think about versatility once cooked?).
• Add onions if you have them and perhaps some spices if you want to add a particular flavour at this stage as well.
• Cover with cold pressed rapeseed oil and roast, turning occasionally, anywhere from 20-40 minutes. Set a timer and check regularly.
• Once cooked through and looking golden and smelling wonderful, then you can of course use them immediately, or, what I tend to do is to split the veg in two, reserving one half for lunches and suppers over the course of the week – label and date and store in your fridge. They will easily last for 5/6 days in your fridge.

Use the whole roasted vegetables as a base to make the following:

• Pesto – turn into a kind of red pesto by blitzing with toasted pine nuts, parmesan/pecorino and a little water.

• Empanadas – open a khobez flat bread or pitta and fill with mashed roasted vegetables / pesto / grated cheese / hummus and dry fry in a pan till hot and melty.

• Countless hot and cold lunches and suppers – just add cooked grains/pulses, sliced avocado, leftover roast meats/fish, leaves, herbs, flavoured yogurts, toasted nuts/seeds, etc.

Then blitz down the other half – perhaps adding some sun-dried tomatoes, tomato passata – or just a little stock or water to give you a roasted vegetable sauce for your freezer. Freeze portions in freezer safe bags or jars – don’t forget to label and date! Use the blitzed sauces as a handy flavoursome base to make the following:

• Soup – let down with good quality fresh stock and top with something crunchy; fried lardons/sage leaves, croutons, toasted nuts/seeds

• Pasta sauce/base for pasta bakes – leave as is or stir through ricotta and black cabbage, parmesan

• Veggie chilli – add roasted vegetable pieces, a tin of black eye beans, cumin, cinnamon, crushed allspice, chipotle chilli/smoked paprika and serve with herbed guacamole (smashed avocado, lime, mixed chopped herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper)

• Curry – add a ‘tarka’ to make a curry sauce base for tinned chickpeas/fried okra/paneer (fried spices and aromatics; garlic, ginger, fresh curry leaves. Use it as a spiced poaching liquor to poach chicken or fish – a great curry in a hurry!
• Home-made ketchup/BBQ sauce – reduce the sauce down so it’s thick and glossy, adding a splash of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup to create a thin, flavoursome sauce for dipping or marinating.

We ❤️ Basil & Tom’s

This first week of May 2019 we are exploring one of Basil & Tom’s fab weekly veg boxes and showing you how to use the contents in new and exciting ways, with loads of time saving tips and tricks to create a trove of delicious food to see you through the week and beyond – and ensure that you never waste a vegetable again.

We’ll be posting videos via our Instagram stories every day this week and you can find hints, tips, recipes and guidelines here on our blog and the Basil & Tom’s website.

Follow the veg box magic at #BandTStories

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