Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable Salad
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An easy, colorful and incredibly tasty roasted vegetable dinner salad packed full of Mediterranean vegetables including eggplant, bell peppers, and tomatoes tossed with basil pesto sauce, chickpeas and greens.
I am obsessed with cooking and eating Mediterranean food — it feeds my soul. This warm salad is full of vibrantly colored vegetables. Like a classic nicoise salad, eating this will make you feel like it’s always summer, no matter what time of year it is.
A colorful mess of vegetables tumbled together onto a sheet pan makes the best — and simplest — roasted vegetable salad you could ask for!
Fortunately, all the vegetables you need to make this are available year-round. That means you can make this dish ANYTIME, even after your summer farmer’s market or weekly CSA box is long gone.
Roasted vegetable salad ingredients
Take note: The roasted veggies are great to layer into vegetable lasagna!
- Eggplant: In summertime I scoop up baby eggplants or marbled purple-and-white eggplants whenever I see them. They have a mild creamy flesh I LOVE. The rest of the time, choosing firm medium-sized eggplants is a good bet.
- Tomatoes: Multi-colored cherry tomatoes are reliably sweet and juicy, and markets have them year round.
- Bell pepper: I like to use red, orange or yellow bell peppers for an extra colorful salad. Any combo or color you can get is great.
- Red onion: One of my favorite onions to eat raw, pickled or roasted because it’s sweet and not too sharp.
- Other vegetables to roast: Feel free to switch up the combination of vegetables here to fill your sheet pan. Zucchini, tender yellow squash, leeks and cauliflower florets are great too!
Steps for roasting vegetables
1. Once you have your veggies cut into about equal-size pieces, toss them together on a large rimmed baking sheet with plenty of good olive oil, salt and crushed red chili pepper. 2. Roast at a moderately high temperature (425 degrees). That way they’ll soften and caramelize in less than 30 minutes.
Give them a stir halfway through roasting so they cook evenly.
3. As soon as they’re ready, dress the vegetables with your favorite pesto sauce. Stir in the chickpeas and baby greens until the leaves wilt.
Serving options
- Serve the salad as is, or with cooked grains like couscous, orzo pasta, quinoa or farro.
- Add about 1/2 cup of your favorite soft cheese to the salad just before serving. Feta, goat cheese, burrata or ricotta are all delicious choices.
- Instead of pesto, drizzle the salad with my Essential Green Sauce, or creamy Lemon Tahini Dressing
- Any soft textured baby greens like kale, spinach, or arugula are perfect to use in the salad.
- Serve as a base for grilled meat, seafood or chicken.
Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound eggplant, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2 bell peppers (red and/or yellow), seeded and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved if larger than 2-inches in diameter
- ½ cup sliced red onion
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon crushed red chili pepper, or to taste
- Kosher salt
- ¼ cup basil pesto sauce , or green sauce
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
- 2 big handfuls baby greens, such as arugula, spinach or kale
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 (220 C) degrees.
- Put the eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and onion on a large (18"x13") rimmed sheet pan. To ensure they roast evenly, the veggies should fit snugly, but not piled on top of each other. Drizzle the oil over and season with the chili pepper and salt to taste (I usually use 1-2 teaspoons Diamond kosher).
- Bake 25-30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the vegetables are softened and lightly browned on the edges.
- Add the pesto, vinegar and chickpeas to the hot vegetables and stir around with a spatula. Sprinkle the greens over and stir again until the leaves wilt slightly.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Karen’s Notes and Tips
- The roasted vegetables taste delicious for days. Keep refrigerated and warm to room temperature or briefly heat in a microwave to serve.
- You can also freeze the roasted vegetables for up to one month. Cool completely and omit the greens before packing into freezer containers. Add the greens when you reheat the salad and enjoy!
- Add soft creamy cheese like feta, burrata, ricotta or goat cheese to the warm vegetables.
Nutrition
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
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This recipe is delicious and so easy to make! We’ll be having it again soon and might experiment with different sauces. We stumbled into FamilyStyleFood last year and have not been disappointed with any of the 17 Karen Tedesco recipes we’ve tried.
Wow, thanks for sharing that Michael! Here are some other sauces to try next time – I hope you enjoy: Roasted Red Pepper Romesco Sauce https://familystylefood.com/homemade-roasted-red-pepper-sauce-recipe/
Lemon Tahini Dressing https://familystylefood.com/tahini-dressing/
Olive oil at 425? Isn’t that a bit high?
Great question, Georgette. Olive oil is safe to use in high-heat roasting (although I wouldn’t use expensive, special extra-virgin oils for anything but drizzling over a dish). For more info read this from the National Olive Oil AssociationL https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/olive-oil-on-high-heat-is-it-safe
Absolutely amazing! So flavorful and filling. I made this for myself tonight, but I think my kids might even enjoy this salad. Thank you for sharing!
My mouth is watering. I love this mixed with pasta too….the chickpeas are a nice touch!