Best Ever Roasted Vegetable Salad Recipe

This Roasted Vegetable Salad is served with a warm mustard dressing and is the most flavorful and satisfying salad you’ll ever eat!

When summer and fall clash, and the temperatures stubbornly remind us that it’s technically not fall, but our bodies start to crave cozy foods and fall flavors, it’s time to make this salad. Of course, I love it all year round, but this is the most perfect time to enjoy it.

A salad with decidedly fall components is a perfect way to transition into fall from summer.  Sure, you may be more than ready for the comfort food line up, but keep in mind it’s a long winter.  There will be plenty of time for those foods we associate with cold weather, warm fires, and big sweaters.

This easy-to-make salad has flavorful roasted vegetables, pepitas, and a simple homemade dressing that I love served warm. It’s perfect for lunch or dinner!

It’s a healthy roasted veggie salad and it gets rave reviews every time I make it.

I love this roasted vegetable salad recipe because it goes well with almost every main dish. Serve it with pork chops, rotisserie chicken, pork tenderloin, or even a grilled steak – it will deliver EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Plus, it’s an easy meal prep solution that you can just pull out of your fridge and enjoy throughout the week.

The recipe I’m sharing will yield 4 large salad bowls, but more for a smaller side dish. Yep! Feed them all!

Ingredients–What You Need

Gather your ingredients to make this show stopper salad!

For the Dressing

This is a simple dressing but the flavors are perfect!

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For a rich, silky texture, use extra virgin olive oil as your base for the dressing. Don’t have extra virgin olive oil? Avocado oil will work.

I stick to pure olive oil for its health benefits. It’s good for the heart and helps lower cholesterol levels. You need 4 tablespoons for this salad dressing.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Add apple cider vinegar to the dressing mix for a spot-on balance of sweetness and tang. It will give your dressing a bright flavor and enhance the other ingredients in the dish. Two tablespoons are good enough.

Dijon Mustard

Mustard packs in flavor and adds a nice kick to the dish. Dijon mustard works particularly well here because of its zesty taste. One and a half tablespoons should do the job, but feel free to add more if you like your dressings with an extra punch.

Honey

Honey balances the flavors in this dressing and adds a touch of sweetness.

Honey supports gut health, boosts the immune system, and is an antioxidant powerhouse.

Apple Cider or Apple Juice

Apple cider or apple juice adds more sweetness a depth of flavor to the dressing. The acidity and sweetness play off the other ingredients, resulting in a truly delicious dressing. Use a tablespoon of either one for this recipe.

You’ll also need kosher salt and black pepper. Adjust them to your liking.

For the Salad

Let’s check out our list of veggies for this hearty salad.

Mixed Baby Green

You need 10 ounces of mixed baby greens. Namely, kale, spinach, lettuce, arugula, etc. These will fill your bowl with all the essential vitamins and minerals you need.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potato is full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Plus, it tastes great, roasted. You only need one small sweet potato here. You can peel and dice it like the recipe states, or leave the peel on if you prefer.

Carrots

Carrots add texture, sweetness, and color to this salad. Plus, they balance your blood sugar, help with weight management, and enhance your brain function. This salad calls for three medium carrots, peeled and chopped.

Parsnips

This anti-inflammatory vegetable is full of vitamins C and K. We’ll need two medium-sized parsnips, peeled and chopped into small cubes.

Beet

Bring in some natural, earthy sweetness with the beet. It adds a beautiful pinkish-purple hue to this salad and does a ton for your health. From your brain to your heart and your gut – beets keep the organs happy. Use one medium-sized peeled and diced beet.

Avocado Oil

Since we’ll be roasting our veggies for 25-45 minutes, we need oil with a high smoking point. Avocado oil can handle heat up to 500 °F, making it an ideal choice for this recipe. Drizzle two tablespoons evenly over the vegetables before roasting.

Pepitas

Pumpkin seeds are loaded with Vitamin K, manganese, and phosphorus – you need all these for your bones and blood. This recipe calls for four tablespoons of pepita.

Ingredient Variations

I understand we might not always have the required ingredients on hand. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this roasted vegetable salad recipe.

If you’re in a fix, here are the substitutes that’ll work well:

• Swap pumpkin seeds for sunflower seeds.
• Balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, and lemon juice can cover up for apple cider vinegar.
• Agave nectar or maple syrup will fill in for honey.
• If there’s a vegetable you don’t love in the mix, swap it for something you do love. Butternut squash would work really well here!

You can also use any of your favorite vegetables. Red bell peppers, red potatoes, yellow squash, Brussels sprouts, red onion, cherry tomatoes – literally anything you prefer.

How to Make the BEST Roasted Vegetable Salad

Dressing

This salad dressing is easy to prepare and tastes phenomenal. All you have to do is:

1. Blend all your ingredients until the oil emulsifies. You can use a blender or simply put the ingredients in a mason jar and give it a good shake.
2. Taste and adjust your seasonings.
3. Heat the dressing slightly in a small saucepan.
4. Drizzle a little on each salad right before serving.

Salad

• Heat your oven to 400 degrees.
• Place vegetables on a large baking sheet and cover it all with avocado oil.
• Sprinkle some salt and pepper and toss everything well.
• Roast vegetables in the preheated oven for 25-45 minutes.
• Now, assemble your delicious salad. Start by putting the greens on a plate, top it with roasted vegetables (about 1/2 cup for the large salad portion), pepitas (about 1 tablespoon for the large portion), and a drizzle of the dressing. You don’t need a lot of dressing – just a tiny bit will enhance the flavor.

Tips and Tricks

• Longer cooking time will give you sweeter and more caramelized veggies.
• If you don’t want the veggies to bleed color into each other, keep them separated.
• Add some feta cheese or goat cheese to the salad for extra flavor and creaminess.
• Keep a jar of homemade dressing in your fridge in an airtight container; it’s convenient and much healthier than store-bought dressings.
• If you’re using salty cheese as a topping, adjust the salt level in the dressing accordingly.
• Add some cooked quinoa, brown rice, or grilled chicken for a complete meal if you want more protein.
• Finish it with fresh parsley, basil, cilantro, oregano, and Italian seasoning for added flavor.
• Always use fresh ingredients for the best flavor.

 

I love the play on textures and temperatures this salad brings.  The cold, crisp lettuce contrasts the warm, soft vegetables.  Then there is the little crunch from the pepitas and the drizzle of warm, tangy mustard dressing.  It all just works.  I love when recipes come togther like that.

For me this salad works especially well because I have it for lunch a few days in a row.  The first day there’s a little work and then the following days I can throw lunch together in less than five minutes.

If you make this recipe, or any of my other healthy recipes, please leave a star rating below! It’s so helpful for other readers to see which recipes are tried and true! I’d also love to see it–share your photo of this dish and tag me on Instagram and I’ll feature you!