ragin’ veggies

make you drip

My husband has a friend named Josh who has a wife who is vegan. I taught Josh how to make this dish for his wife. I made this recipe up as we went along…encouraging Josh to trust himself throughout the process.

We used the tenants in my refrigerator as inspiration. I had eggplant, cauliflower, leeks, fresh herbs, micro greens, radishes, turmeric root, and cucumber to work with. We split up the cauliflower florets by hand, cubed a couple eggplants (skin on), and sliced leeks into cute little circles. Added some spices, salt & pepper, and olive oil before roasting in the oven on 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. If you are in a rush, you can broil them and cut cooking time in half but make sure to keep an eye on your veggies to keep them from burning.

Meanwhile, Josh thinly sliced the radish and Persian cucumber and put them in bowl of sweet and tangy rice vinegar and grated turmeric root (about a teaspoon). While he got his flash pickle on, I made my favorite Green Goddess Sauce.

Last step was making vegan yogurt sauce. I combined a cup or so of almond milk unsweetened yogurt with one clove of crushed garlic, pinch of cured sumac (MUST HAVE), tsp of Tajin, fresh lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Feel free to use Labneh or greek yogurt in place of vegan yogurt. The assembly was fun…we spread the yogurt sauce at the bottom of a plate and layered everything on top. Have fun with it. Taste as you go and feel free to make it your own. And remember to improvise along the way…substitutions are encouraged and most importantly: mistakes are the gateway to great flavors and new discoveries. F*ck it up…learning-by-doing.

Questions? Ask away in comments below!

Need help making the perfect roast veggies? Check out this video on YouTube.