Hearty Marinated Vegetable Salad is full of tender veggies and a zippy herbaceous olive oil vinaigrette. The perfect healthy side dish!
This is one of those salads that is all about the veggies and not really about the lettuce. In this case, not about the lettuce at all. And don't get me wrong. I love a good crisp lettuce salad from time to time, but I really live for these hearty flavor-packed vegetable forward salads.
I mean, tender roasted potatoes and cauliflower get combined with sweet bell peppers and earthy mushrooms. We are already off to a great start here! But then we coat everything with a olive oil forward dressing that has some zip from red wine vinegar, some tang from a spoonful of Dijon, and herbs in not one but two forms!
It's kinda like potato salad, kinda like cold roasted vegetables, and all kindsa good!
I like to call this a marinated vegetable salad because once the veggies are cooked and tossed with the dressing, we pop the whole thing back into the fridge. The vegetables soak in the dressing and it infuses them with flavor as they chill. The veggies marinade in the sauce and become a vehicle for that delicious tangy herbaceous dressing!
And the longer this salad sits, the better it gets. Which makes it the perfect candidate for travel. So, pack it for lunch, take it on a picnic and most definitely bring it to every summer potluck. It goes wherever you go.
So let's jump on in!
How to make Marinated vegetable Salad:
Chop those veggies and spread them out on sheet pans. The peppers and mushrooms cook faster, so they get their own pan and the cauliflower and potatoes get another. Give them a good glug of oil and a hefty pinch os S&P. Yes, we will season the veggies later, too, but why miss out on an opportunity to add EVEN MORE FLAVOR!?
While your veggies do their thing, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Easy peasy.
Then, this is the VERY IMPORTANT PART: As soon as the veggies come out of the oven, toss them immediately with the dressing while they are still warm. Repeat, while they are still warm. This helps the veggies soak in that perfect vinaigrette. One bite into the explosion of flavor that is this salad and you'll be glad you did that warm toss.
Pop the salad into the fridge to chill, or eat it warm, or at room temperature. Do your thing. The one thing I will mention is that the flavors get stronger and stronger as the salad sits. So feel free to make this one ahead of time and let those flavors come together.
Marinated Vegetable Salad
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Hearty Marinated Vegetable Salad is full of tender veggies and a zippy herbaceous olive oil vinaigrette. The perfect healthy side dish!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 (8) oz container cremini mushrooms, halved
- 3 cups halved (or quartered depending on size) baby potatoes
- 2 red bell peppers, chopped
- ½ head of cauliflower, cut into florets
- Salt and pepper
For the dressing:
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 ½ tablespoons Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the mushrooms and peppers on one sheet pan and the potatoes and cauliflower on a second sheet pan. Drizzle them with oil and season the with a pinch of salt and pepper and give them a toss. Add the to the oven and bake for 25 minutes the remove the peppers and mushroom and continue to bake the potatoes and cauliflower for another 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender.
- Add the roasted vegetables to a large bowl and pour over the dressing while they are still warm. Transfer to the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours and enjoy!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅙th recipe
- Calories: 218
- Sugar: 3g
- Sodium: 234g
- Fat: 18g
- Saturated Fat: 3g
- Carbohydrates: 13G
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
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