Roasted Vegetables with Pesto

After my recent rant about pesto, I thought it only fair to share a new dish using homemade pesto sauce. This recipe gets bonus points for being easy. It’s something you can throw in the oven to cook, then grill a piece of fish or chicken while it’s cooking and you have a meal in about half an hour.

These vegetables are something I’ve been making at least once a week for the past couple of months. To give credit where it is due, the dish was inspired by my mother, who offered up some vegetables out of her refrigerator before going out of town for a week. She suggested I roast the eggplant and tomatoes together with the mushrooms. I added a few other ingredients and served it during a weekend away with friends. Wouldn’t you know, it was a hit? The roasted mushrooms seemed to be everyone’s favorite part (though mine is the eggplant, of course).

This recipe is extremely adaptable:

• It can be served hot from the oven, at room temperature, or even cold, like an antipasto salad.
• Don’t have one of the ingredients? Leave it out or substitute another vegetable (but do include the mushrooms if you can, trust me on this).
• Tiny new potatoes (quartered if larger than 2″) do especially well, as would other root vegetables like baby carrots or even parsnips.
• Adapt it for the seasons, depending on what’s in the market.
• Even the leftovers are flexible; I’ve used them in salads, mixed with whole grains, and in pastas (just add some cooked pasta and a bit more pesto and you have a meal).

Print Recipe

Roasted Vegetables with Pesto

Recipe for eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes and other vegetables roasted with home made pesto.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: vegan, Vegetables, vegetarian

Servings: 8 cups

Ingredients

• 1 each large eggplant about 1 lb
• 8 oz cherry tomatoes
• 8 oz button mushrooms
• 1 each red onion about 8 oz before peeling
• 1 each bell pepper yellow, red or orange
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons pesto or pistou
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Cut the stem end off the eggplant and then cut it in half lenghtwise. Cut each half into 4 or 5 strips and then into 2" sections. Place the eggplant in a large mixing bowl.
• Cut the bell pepper into 2" pieces. Add to the bowl with the eggplant.
• Peel the onion, cut it in half and then into 1/2" wedges. Add onion to the bowl.
• Peel the garlic cloves and slice them in half if large. Add the garlic to the bowl.
• Add the mushrooms whole to the bowl. If they are very large, cut them in half.
• Toss all the vegetables in the bowl with the olive oil. Do not add the tomatoes or pesto.
• 
• Put the vegetables in a 9"x14" baking dish and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, add the tomatoes and the pesto to the pan and stir to combine. Cook for another 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and all the other vegetables are tender and browned.
• Remove from the oven and season with salt and pepper.

Notes

*For this recipe, I use the pistou version of my pesto recipe because I don't think it needs the cheese or pine nuts.

If you have a garden and grow your own eggplant, I encourage you to save (or Pin) this recipe for the summer when you are looking for something to do with all that excess produce; it’s a perfect make-ahead summer dish.