This easy and tasty roast vegetable dish makes a delicious lunch or supper. It is an ideal way of not only getting some of your 5-a-day in your diet, but also using up any leftover vegetables that you have in the fridge (any that you have that are getting a bit soft would work well in this recipe). You can either serve this as a light meal in itself, or as a side-dish with vegan sausages, burgers, etc. It is full of flavour and very satisfying. Below I have given a recipe using the veg that I had to hand, but you could use just about any you like (it’s all a matter of personal taste). I love herbs as well, so I have used a lot of different ones here, but you may wish to leave some of them out (if you are not as much of a herb-head as I am!)

Ingredients (Serves 4)

Around 8-10 new potatoes, scrubbed and halved

Half of a small cauliflower, cut into florets

Half of a green pepper, sliced

A handful of chestnut mushrooms, sliced (or leave them whole, if you use small ones)

1 small carrot, cut into small chunks

2 tbsp olive oil

2-3 tbsp grated vegan cheese

2 tbsp of olive oil

3-4 cloves garlic,  peeled and left whole

1 lemon, cut into quarters

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. of fresh chopped rosemary

1 tsp. of fresh chopped thyme

1 tsp. of fresh oregano

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.

2) Prepare the vegetables by washing, peeling, chopping, etc.

3) Put all of the veg in a roasting dish with the lemon and cloves of garlic. Season well, sprinkle the chopped herbs over the top, drizzle with olive oil and tuck in the bay leaves.

4) Roast in the oven until the vegetables are tender, around 30-35 minutes.

5) Around 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove from the oven, sprinkle the vegan cheese over the top, and put under a hot grill until the cheese bubbles (the one I use, Vegusto, doesn’t melt, but still tastes really good!)

6) Garnish with fresh parsley, or other herbs, and serve warm with crusty bread, or as an accompaniment to sausages, etc.

(Variation:  You can also use dried herbs instead of, or as well as the fresh ones -just use around half a teaspoon of each, instead of a whole one.)

Enjoy! I appreciate all your votes and comments.