Ultimate Holiday Leftover Roasted Veg Salad

You know I don’t get too excited about eating salads… and you would think that would be doubly true with a salad full of leftovers. BUT… when the salad has this much variety of flavour, texture, and colour… I will gladly dig in! Customize this leftover roasted vegetable salad to suit the ingredients you have on hand and try out these ideas for jazzing it up:

• Your Roasted Veggie Leftovers Plus…
• Leafy Greens (raw, steamed, or sauteed)
• A Bean, Grain, Or Pulse (roasted chickpeas, boiled beans, leftover grain, lentils)
• Some Crunch (nuts, seeds)
• A Bit Of Sweetness & Chewy Texture (dried fruit)
• And Of Course… An Easy And Flavourful Dressing

What Leftover Roasted Veggies Are Great To Use

You can really use whatever you have in your fridge!

• If you have more Asian vegetables try adding toasted sesame seeds, a grain if you have some, avocado, and even dried seaweed.
  • Stirring up a miso based dressing like our Miso Maple Tahini would work well!
• Have asparagus? Try a lemony flavour, maybe sunflower seeds and white beans if you have them!
  • Our lemon tahini dressing would work well or something like our Zingy Caesar Dressing OR No Blender Quick Caesar Dressing made creamy with hummus!
• And for any of these beautiful fall vegetables… try out this combo!

Other great ingredient ideas:

1. Great Leafy Greens: Use your typical kale, spinach, and lettuce varieties, BUT also use up any beet greens, turnip leaves, swiss chard, dandelion greens etc.
2. Grains, Beans, or Pulses: these add a different texture and will make the salad more filling. Beans and pulses, like lentils, will also be a great protein source!
3. Nuts and Seeds: Some crunch really helps me to feel like I’m eating a salad that’s worth it. Sounds funny I know! But for me, having something I really have to chew and has a great texture makes me feel like I’m eating something more substantial than what a salad is in my head! Nuts and seeds are also a way to pack in lots of protein and healthy fats to keep you feeling nice and satisfied.
4. Dried Fruit: I love adding in dried prunes, figs, cranberries, even raisins for a bit of sweetness and a chewy texture. I always loved salads with dried cranberries when I was little. It just seemed like it made the salad more fun!
5. The Dressing: See below!

The Dressing

I always use to rely on store-bought dressings and would have a collection of 2 or 3 in my fridge at all times. But since Bryan and I have become use to stocking our pantry and fridge with only a few really versatile ingredients, we can always stir up a really flavourful dressing in minutes!

What to keep in your fridge:

• Tahini: A seed butter made from toasted sesame seeds. It’s ultra creamy and packed with protein from the sesame seeds!
• Lemon Juice and/or Lime Juice: We don’t always have fresh lemons or limes, so having lemon and lime juice from concentrate makes stirring up flavourful dressings an anytime possibility.
• Maple Syrup or other Liquid Sweetener: A liquid sweetener is great to have on hand when you don’t want to blend a dressing to break down dates for the sweetness or use a more refined sugar.
• Miso Paste: a savoury, salty paste made from fermented soybeans. A little goes a long way and will add a ton of flavour to your dressings and sauces.
• Nut Butters: what can I say… creamy, full of flavour, full of protein and healthy fats… way too tempting to eat straight from the jar.
• Oils & Vinegars: I often make dressings without any oil so they certainly aren’t necessary but do help your dressing spread and stick to all your ingredients. Vinegars are a fantastic way to add lots of flavour and tang. I love having apple cider vinegar, balsamic, and red and white wine vinegars on hand.

Recipe Cost For Leftover Roasted Vegetable Salad

The cost for this recipe will certainly vary depending on which ingredients you choose but…

Our Simple Lemon Tahini Dressing costs us approximately: CAD $0.83
A full batch of our Cranberry Sauce costs us: CAD $1.39
And the remaining ingredients (excluding the leftover roasted veg) cost us approximately: $3.85

So having these pantry friendly ingredients always on hand plus having our fridge and freezer stocked with helpful and versatile ingredients means we can always jazz up leftovers and make salads that taste great and are fun to eat!

Check out our Pantry Tips Page for a full list of what pantry staples we keep on hand and what helpful ingredients we always have in our freezer! Subscribe to our newsletter in the side bar for a free pantry e-book and bonus recipes!

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