Mediterranean Roasted Rainbow Vegetables

Name: Mediterranean Roasted Rainbow Vegetables
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients: 1 medium purple cauliflower, cut into florets; 6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped; 3/4 cup firm green olives, pitted (I like Castelvetrano or Manzanilla best); 1/2 cup marinated red peppers, chopped (mild or spicy); 1 (6.5 oz) jar artichoke hearts; 1/4 cup garlic oil (may sub avocado oil plus 4 cloves minced garlic); 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped; 1 tbsp fresh flat leaf Italian parsley, chopped; 2 tsp, fresh oregano, chopped; 1/2 tsp sea salt (or more if you like things salty)

August 29, 2018 By Whip & Wander 40 Comments

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Make it colorful and the flavor will follow

These Mediterranean Roasted Rainbow Vegetables are one of my favorite ways to instill some big flavors and colors into dinner in a simple way. I find that the more colorful the dish, the more complex the flavor usually is. Looking at the rainbow of colors in this dish, one might assume that the color is added in artificially – but they’d be incorrect. These beauties are naturally vibrant and colorful, straight from the ground!

The key here is variety. This dish contains an assortment of different vegetables, herbs, an even fruit (olives!) which each offer their own flavor profile to make a complex assortment of sweet, salty, bitter, briny, and spicy. Eat the rainbow, friends!

Is purple cauliflower different than regular cauliflower?

Not really, no. The difference between regular white cauliflower and purple or orange cauliflower is so negligible that I feel confident most wouldn’t be able to taste the difference. I use them interchangeably, but like the purple best for the sole reason that it’s just really pretty. I picked this gorgeous purple cauliflower up at my local farmers’ market in Portland, but I regularly see both purple and orange cauliflower at most local grocery stores. Take a look at your local produce market and I bet you’ll be surprised at how easily you can find it too!

I know what’s lurking in your crisper right now

I’m going to hazard a strong guess that you currently have a mostly full bag of carrots lurking in your crisper right now. You probably bought a big 5lb bag over a week ago because your dinner recipe called for two carrots, and you figured “What the heck, I’m sure I’ll find a use for the rest of them. They’re only $2.99 for the bag, afterall!” We all do this. I am supremely guilty of always buying the huge bag of carrots with nearly zero specific ideas in mind for their use.

Lucky for you, these Mediterranean Roasted Rainbow Vegetables will take a 6-carrot-chunk out of that bag, so you can feel smug about actually using the carrots instead of just buying them and guiltily tossing most of them in the compost 2 weeks later.

A note for special diets

These Mediterranean Roasted Rainbow Vegetables are grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and friendly for Paleo, SIBO, and Whole30 diets. Carrots carry more natural sugar than other vegetables, so they are sparingly used in Keto diets, but the net carb count for this dish is only 10g per serving so I say if your daily intake will allow it, go for it!