Winter Vegetable & Falafel Bowl

My favorite thing to eat, currently, (besides popcorn) is a bowl full of greens, roasted winter vegetables, and some kind of sauce or dressing.  And adding goat cheese doesn’t hurt!  Including some meat or an egg is fine, as well, but I’m really okay with keeping it vegetarian.

While Todd was gone one week, I made a big batch of roasted sweet potatoes and cauliflower, and I couldn’t wait for dinner each night.  To make the cauliflower, toss with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme and minced garlic.  Toss the chopped sweet potatoes (or butternut squash) in extra virgin olive oil, turmeric, salt and pepper.  Lay each vegetable on a pan lined with parchment paper.  Roast at 375 until they are soft in the middle and browned on the edges.

For the Winter bowl, you can use any vegetables you like: cauliflower, butternut squash, sweet potato, broccoli, mushroom, grape tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, etc!  Pick your favorite herbs and spices, and season like I did in the above paragraph.  Roast them all on individual pans, because some of the veggies take longer than others.  THESE CAN ALL BE MADE AHEAD OF TIME!  Just keep them in the fridge, and enjoy Winter vegetable bowls all week long!

For the falafel, I used Pinch of Yum’s Baked Falafel recipe.  These call for cooked lentils, olive oil, garlic, fresh herbs, jalapeño, lemon, salt, pepper, and a little flour (I used GF).  Mine were a tad dry, but I think it’s because I didn’t put enough herbs and olive oil.  I would absolutely make this recipe again, though.  These would also be fabulous on a Greek salad. 

If you’d rather, just add cooked lentils to your winter bowl!  I cook mine in chicken stock, white wine, Everyday Seasoning mix from TJs, and salt and pepper.

Winter Vegetable & Falafel Bowl (this is more of a guideline than a recipe :))

• 3 baked falafel (use the recipe from Pinch of Yum)
• baby kale (or your favorite green) as the base
• roasted sweet potato or butternut squash (see directions above)
• roasted cauliflower and/or broccoli (see directions above)
• roasted zucchini and/or mushrooms and/or grape tomatoes
• goat cheese
• hummus
• balsamic vinaigrette, or just a squeeze of lemon juice

I realize this is more of a concept than a formal recipe, but I hoped this would inspire you to try a winter bowl, with your preferred vegetables!  Talk about a bowl full of nutrients!  This is it!

Even though I am counting down the days until Spring, I think I’ll be enjoying similar meals to this on warm days as well!