Roasted Spring Salad with Honey Mint Pesto
This vibrant salad is full of the flavors of Spring. Around this time of year, I get eager for the taste of Summer (tomatoes! corn! anything from the farmer’s market!) and am tempted to bypass the Spring faire. I created this dish when menu planning for Easter, and wanting to eat something vibrant, green and balance the strawberry cinnamon rolls, that I will also be making.
The pesto has so much flavor and is different than a traditional pesto. The honey in the sauce helps balance out the bitterness of the radish and radish greens. You can eat the leftover sauce with crackers, use in bowls for lunches or toss with noodles and cherry tomatoes.
Eat the salad alone, or pair with pasta, brown rice, a bed of greens, or gnocchi for a main dish. The recipe creates extra pesto, you will have plenty of sauce without needing to double the recipe. When boiling off your pasta or gnocchi, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water and add to the pesto when incorporating all of the elements together. This will help thin the sauce. I hope you enjoy!
The pesto calls for roasted garlic, and here’s a reminder how to do so:
Roasted Garlic
Chop off the top of the garlic, drizzle with olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover in foil and roast at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until fragrant. Remove roasted cloves and add to the below pesto.
Ingredients
Vegetables
1 bunch of asparagus
1 bunch of radishes
2 cups of frozen peas
1 8 ounce container of vegan ricotta
Honey Mint Pesto
1 cup of basil, packed
1.5 cups of radish tops (this was all of the tops for the radishes used in this recipe)
3 sprigs of mint
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/2 head of roasted garlic (can sub 2 cloves of raw garlic)
1/4 cup of olive oil
juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon honey
4-6 tablespoons of water, optional
healthy pinch of salt and pepper
Method
Set your oven to 450 degrees.
Start with the Vegetables: Begin by washing your produce. I soak mine for twenty minutes in a bath of cold water and a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. Radishes tend to be dirty, so wash well. Rinse and allow to dry on a kitchen towel.
Next, trim your vegetables. Remove the greens from the radishes, trim the root, and slice in half, lengthwise. For the asparagus, remove the bottom fourth of the spear and cut the remainder into thirds.
Toss the vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they cook quickly. While the vegetables are roasting, begin boiling water to cook your peas.
Boil peas until cooked, rinse with cold water. Mix the roasted radish and asparagus with the boiled peas and toss.
Make the Honey Mint Pesto: Add all of the ingredients, excluding the water, to a food processor and pulse until well combined. If you prefer a more creamy texture, add the water while your food processor is mixing. Add a dollop of the pesto to your cooked vegetables and gently stir to coat.
Whip the Ricotta: Add the ricotta to your food processor and blend for a few seconds. This gives the ricotta a really creamy texture and makes it a perfect base for the vegetables.
Assemble: Smear some whipped ricotta on the bottom of your plate. Add the salad and top with more pesto, mint, basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy!
