Roast Vegetables with Catalan Romesco Sauce

Gluten-free | Sugar-free | Vegan

Makes enough to serve 4-8

Why it’s delicious

This dish contains 2 amazing recipes that you are going to want to have in your fridge and on your table. Romesco sauce is a Catalan speciality from Spain that I was fortunate to try the first time I visited Barcelona and makes the most by oven or fire roasting vegetables till they are at their tender and sweetest best. 

Combine the wonderful Romesco with a roasting tray, barbecue or open fire full of seasonal vegetables for a truly special and delicious dish. 

Hints, Tips + Tricks

This recipe requires Bridget's Sticky Sauce, a healthy cooking sauce I use in many of my recipes. It's simple, healthy and packs a lot of flavour without adding unnecessary calories. If you need the recipe, you can get it here.

Ingredients

For the Romesco sauce

• 2 medium ripe tomatoes, hard core removed with a small knife
• 2 red capsicum (peppers)
• 1 red onion, unpeeled, sliced in half
• 10 garlic bulbs, skin on
• 16 almonds, blanched
• 16 hazelnuts, blanched
• Pinch chilli flakes
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 6 tbsp avocado or olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider
• Himalayan salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the roast vegetables, you can choose 2 kg (4 lb)  from the following

• Zucchini, sliced into large chunks
• Eggplant, cut into chunks
• Sweet potato, washed and cut into chunks
• Asparagus, woody ends removed
• Pumpkin, peeled and cut into thick slices
• Spring onions, top ends sliced off and discarded
• Red onions, peeled and sliced into thick rounds
• Summer squash, sliced in half
• Cauliflower, cut into florets
• Broccoli, cut into florets
• Fennel bulb, sliced into chunks
• Figs, sliced in half

• 6 tbsp Bridget's Sticky Sauce
• Small handful basil leaves, finely shredded

Method

1. Start preparing the sauce by preheating your oven, barbecue or wood fired oven till it is very very hot. If you are using your oven, set it to 250C (485F) 
2. On a heavy bottomed roasting tray, add the tomatoes, red capsicum, onion, and garlic and cook in the oven till very well roasted with the skin of capsicum and tomato blistering. This will take about 30 minutes depending on how you are cooking them. Keep an eye on them as it's OK for the skins to blacken, but watch the smaller garlic and onion pieces. 
3. When the sauce vegetables are nearly ready, add the almonds and hazelnuts to the roasting tray and roast for 5 minutes. Remove the roasting tray from the oven and allow the vegetables to cool slightly. 
4. In the meantime add the vegetables you intend to make into the salad into a clean heavy bottomed roasting tray and drizzle with the sticky sauce and a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. 
5. For best roasting practice, make sure the vegetables are in a single layer in the roasting tray and well drizzled and mixed with the sticky sauce. Roast in the hot oven for 30-40 minutes until golden. 
6. Finish off the sauce by peeling the skin from the tomato, capsicum, onion and garlic. Roughly chop the tomato, capsicum and onion and add along with the garlic, almonds, hazelnuts, chilli flakes, paprika, avocado or olive oil, and vinegar to a food processor and blend well to form a thick chunky sauce. Taste for flavour and season with salt and pepper. 
7. To serve your salad, combine the hot vegetables on a serving platter and then dollop over the sauce. Top with shredded basil.