Warm Roasted Vegetable Salad with Quinoa and Arugula

A warm roasted vegetable salad is an amazing healthy fall meal.

With the holidays fast approaching, I figure I need a lot more salads in my life. Something has to counteract the cookies, drinking, and otherwise indulging. I’m already seeing my weekends (and even some weeknights!) packed with fun activities. And with that fun, comes unhealthy eating.

I wasn’t sure what to call this salad, as it has a lot going on, to be honest. It starts with roasted veggies. Sweet potatoes, peppers, corn. The salad itself has a base of arugula (although mine had some other peppery green in it) and warm quinoa. It’s got goat cheese for creaminess, both corn chips and sunflower seeds for crunch, and is finished off with a cilantro-lime vinaigrette. It’s very filling and chock full of veggies, but in a way that is ultra-satisfying.

For the veggies, I tossed diced sweet potatoes, corn, and bell peppers with a bit of avocado oil and some spicy barbecue seasoning. The corn was actually a bit chewy for my liking, so in the recipe, I added it near the end instead of for the entire time. I wanted it a bit browned and sweet, not like candy. It wasn’t terrible but could be better.

The dressing is a vinaigrette version of one of my favorite dressings I’ve made. It’s basically cilantro, garlic, lime juice, and olive oil blended together with a bit of coriander to add a floral note. It makes this roasted vegetable salad a big hit.

One thing to note — you want this to be warm, not hot. So give yourself time for your roasted vegetables and quinoa to cool a bit after cooking them. This way your arugula wilts slightly, and you have pockets of creamy goat cheese throughout the salad.

This is not the quickest salad to put together, and when I was done my kitchen was a wreck (to be fair, this happens a lot) but it’s really tasty in a surprising kind of way.