Recipe for roasted vegetables with warm walnut-miso sauce

Rroasted vegetables – carrots, pumpkin, squash and onions – are a healthy and tasty vegan main dish or a nutritious side dish to meat dishes.

Cooked on a drier fire than in a bag of soup, you end up with burnt pumpkin slices that melt in your mouth. Drizzle with warm walnut sauce soaked in red miso paste for a unique flavor combination.

Recipe

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Serve

Four as a main course, more as a side dish

Ingridients

• 10 slim carrots (the ones you buy in a bouquet), preferably a mix of colors
• 500 g of greens
• 500 g pumpkin or squash, cut into thick rings and seedless
• 3 large white or red onions, cut into rings
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 endive heads, red or white (or mixture)

For the sauce

• 55 g pieces of walnuts
• 200 ml of extra virgin olive oil (more fruity than grassy)
• 75 g red miso paste
• 1⁄2 teaspoon chili flakes
• 3 greasy cloves of garlic, grated into a pulp

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C / 190C fan * / gas 6.
2. Prune the carrots. Leave the green bouquets if there are any, but wash them well. If you haven’t been able to get a slender carrot, then cut the larger ones in half lengthwise.
3. Peel a squash, grate it and cut it into large rings. Put all the vegetables – except the endive – in a few baking tins (or baking tins that have a versatile lip) where they can lie in one layer. Add the oil, season (don’t over-salt because the sauce is salty) and mix everything together with your hands.
4. Bake for 40 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and lightly burnt, turning once. Cut the endive heads into quarters and add half the cooking time and coat them with oil.
5. While the vegetables are roasting, make the sauce. Mash the walnuts in a mortar with a pestle – or mash with a pulse knob in a food processor – until you get a mixture that is partly finely ground and partly thick. Put olive oil in a pan and heat over very low heat. Add the miso and stir it – instead of breaking it down completely, it will stay in small balls separated from the oil, but that’s fine. Add the chili and garlic and simmer very gently for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garlic should not be stained. Stir in the walnuts and cook for another 2 minutes.
6. Transfer the vegetables to a large plate. Spoon the sauce over or serve side by side.

* Diana’s conversion may differ from the standard