I received an interesting selection of roots in my bag of vegetables from Tasmania Fresh this week, including beets, baby turnip and one which was yellow on the outside and pink in the middle. Any ideas? There was also some beautiful purple garlic, so I decided to roast the lot for a lunchtime salad. Ideally this would have had a large dollop of harissa on top as well as olive oil & balsamic, but in its absence I sprinkled a few chilli flakes for a kick.
What you need:
Bag of salad leaves
1 cup dried couscous
Vegetable or chicken bouillon
3 cups diced root vegetables including beetroot, turnip, swede or try carrots, sweet potato and pumpkin
Couple of cloves of garlic
150g feta
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Harissa sauce
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C. Wash and dice your roots. Since many of mine were baby vegetables, I saw no need to peel them. Scatter them across a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for around 30 minutes until tender, turning them half way through.
During this time, boil the kettle and place your couscous grains into a bowl. Add 1 cup boiling water to a bouillon cube and stir until dissolved. Then quickly, while still very hot, add the water to the couscous. Stir through then place a plate on top and leave it for 10 minutes, allowing the hot water to cook the coucous. No heating required. Fork through the couscous afterwards to break up any clumps.
To assemble, first lay a bed of leaves in your bowl or plate. If you are short of leaves, forget the bottom part of the plate or bowl, but make sure they poke up around the asides, otherwise they won't be seen. Place a few spoonfuls of couscous on top, then the roasted roots and crumble some feta cheese on top.
Add a spoonful of harissa to give it a kick, or cayenne pepper or chilli flakes. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and balsamic vinegar or lemon juice then serve.
Serves 2