Roasted Vegetable and Tabbouleh Salad

I’m thrilled to be guesting with Michelle at Vitamin Sunshine today.  I featured Michelle on Tuesday Tidbits a few weeks ago and you know how I love her recipes and photography.   Michelle is living a very exotic and exciting life at the moment with her hubby in Kuala Lumpur and I’m envious of her trekking adventures through the jungles.  Such a beautiful locale!  Her recipes are healthy, creative and scrumptious.

So please pop over and get the recipe for this Roasted Vegetable and Tabbouleh Salad.  It’s quick, easy, healthy, and gives you a good reason to use up all the veggies in your fridge before you go shopping for the weekend.  See you there! 

I love it when I find ideas for healthy meals that take little time and will use the ingredients you have on hand. There is no need to fill your pantry with exotic ingredients when you can create special dishes with just a little extra thought, right? This tabbouleh (tabouli) dish is a perfect example of that because you can use whatever happens to be in your veggie crisper at the time. Don’t you love it when you can use up all those bits and pieces of peppers, zucchinis and carrots?

I found an organic tabbouleh mix on sale and tried it for the first time and I was not disappointed because it proved to be a big time saver. It contains couscous, dehydrated onions, parsley, and garlic, canola oil and spearmint. No junk! This dish was as simple as combining the olive oil and hot water and placing in the fridge for one hour while you prep and roast your choice of veggies.

I roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, lemons and zucchini and later added raw cucumber, carrots and cherry tomatoes. Roasting the lemon with the other veggies adds that extra zing and if you roast a half lemon you can add the juice to the couscous – fabulous!

Roasted veggies add a layer of rich, complex flavors to this popular Middle Eastern dish and some naan bread or whole wheat pita is a nice accompaniment. You can use either bulgur or couscous – your preference. Bulgur is used in the original recipe. My readers know that I always insist on fresh herbs and this is no exception. Although I used dehydrated parsley, I included fresh parsley as well and lots of basil. Mint would be a great addition, too. I’m sure you’ll agree you can never have too many fresh herbs!

It’s been such a cold winter and I’ve found myself creating Spring recipes in my head and a bowl full of veggie goodness like this has me craving more. This dish is great year round and grilling the veggies in the summer would be so easy. I hope you’ll try this, it’s become my new go-to recipe on the run.

More healthy dishes from Simply Fresh Dinners

Healthy Cabbage Salad

Cauliflower Rice with Roasted Tomatoes

Turkey Chili

Roasted Lemon and Garlic Hummus with Cilantro