Roasted Summer Vegetables: with Millet, Peas and Lentils

Summer vegetables tossed in spices, sesame oil, tamari and chocolate balsamic, then roasted and combined with cooked grains and pulses. These spiced roasted summer vegetables with a pack of quick cook millet, peas and lentils make for a speedy meal. It’s ideal picnic and lunch box fare too.

We’ve been blessed with a good summer this year and my how we needed it after seven months of solid rain. Along with the good weather comes the picnic season. Eating outside with simple food that hasn’t meant hours spent in the kitchen is what many of us are after. I know I am.

Clearspring

In a timely fashion, Clearspring has come up with a range of quick cook grains and pulses so that we can prepare meals quickly and easily. All of them are organic and certified by the Soil Association, which, as many of you know, is the certifying body I trust the most.

Clearspring kindly sent me the range to try out along with a bottle of tamari and a bottle of flax seed oil.

Tamari

Tamari is no stranger to this household. It brings out the flavour of whatever you are cooking and the umami boost it gives turns an ordinary meal into something delicious. Unlike shoyu or other soy sauces, it’s wheat free, so suitable for those with a gluten intolerance.

Flax Seed Oil

The flax oil is also organic and cold pressed. It comes as a blend consisting of 78% flax along with walnut, sunflower, olive and pumpkin oils. I’ve long heard of the wonders of this oil, but have not tried it until now. As some of you probably know, it contains various omega fatty acids. Collective wisdom has it that these help maintain a healthy heart and reduce blood pressure.

The oil has a robust flavour that takes a bit of getting used to. But the taste is ameliorated if you mix it up with walnut or other oils. In any case, it gave a good account of itself in a morning chocolate smoothie. Recipe to follow in another post. And I can see it working well as a salad dressing too. In fact it did work as a dressing in this halloumi rice bowl.

Quick Cook Grains

Slow food is all very well, but sometimes, life being as it is, fast food is welcome. All of this range fits the bill on that score, cooking as they do, in only ten minutes. The nice people at Clearspring have pre-cooked them for us – very handy.

So far, I have used the 5 Grains Quick Cook to accompany another version of fasulye. This contains emmer wheat, barley, long grain brown rice, kamut, Khorasan wheat and wholegrain oats. It was slightly chewy, but really rather nice we thought.

Spiced Roasted Summer Vegetable Salad

So, what about this picnic I mentioned earlier? Well, I decided to liberate the Quick Cook Millet, Peas and Lentils to accompany some roasted vegetables grown on our plot. This seemed like a nice way of getting a balanced nutritious meal with complete protein, carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Talking of healthy balanced ingredients, no meal is complete without its quota of chocolate. My trusty bottle of spiced chocolate balsamic springs into action in moments such as this. I tossed the vegetables in it along with some sesame oil, tamari and Steenbergs hawaij spice mix.

You can, of course, use your favourite spice mix instead. And feel free to use plain balsamic if you prefer. I then roasted them and finely mixed in the cooked grains and pulses.

Packed into individual containers, we transported them to the picnic site and consumed with gusto. CT made appreciative noises and although he’s not keen on being interviewed whilst eating, he described it tersely but sincerely as delicious.

Summer Vegetables To Roast

Most summer vegetables benefit from roasting. I used our homegrown courgettes with both purple and green beans, also grown down at the allotment. We’ve never been very successful at growing carrots though, so those are not ours.

To find out what vegetables are in season here in the UK, you might find this handy guide helpful. What’s in season in August, September and October.

Other Summer Vegetable Recipes You Might Like

• Aubergine (eggplant) yakatori
• Corn salad with feta cheese
• Courgette couscous
• Pesto green beans
• Roasted Mediterranean vegetables
• Sweet pepper tart

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make my spiced roasted summer vegetables, with or without the chocolate balsamic, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?

If you’d like more sauce recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

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Roasted Summer Vegetables with Millet, Peas and Lentils

Summer vegetables tossed in spices, sesame oil, tamari and chocolate balsamic, then roasted and combined with cooked grains and pulses. These spiced roasted summer vegetables with a pack of quick cook millet, peas and lentils make for a speedy meal. It's ideal picnic and lunch box fare too.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: British

Keyword: carrots, chocolate balsamic, courgettes, green beans, lentils, millet, peas, picnics, quick, summer, vegan

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 361kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 6 carrots scrubbed & cut into 4 cm batons
• 2 handful French beans trimmed & cut into 4 cm pieces
• 2 courgettes (zucchini) washed & cut into 4 cm batons
• 4 clove garlic finely chopped
• 1 hot red chilli finely chopped
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp chocolate balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp tamari (affiliate link)
• 1 tsp hawaij spice mix or Middle Eastern spice mix of your choice
• 10 chives
• 250 g Clearspring Quick Cook Millet, Peas & Lentils

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• Toss the vegetables, garlic and chilli in the oil, balsamic, tamari and spice, then roast in the top of the oven for 15-20 minutes at 200℃ (400℉, Gas 6) until done.
• Cover the grains with about double the volume of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for ten minutes and leave the lid on whilst waiting for the veg.
• Combine the two. Allow to cool, divide into four portable containers and snip some chives over the top. Or eat immediately whilst warm.

Notes

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 361kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 252mg | Potassium: 712mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 16191IU | Vitamin C: 48mg | Calcium: 70mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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Sharing

This month’s Vegetable Palette is all about the colours yellow and orange. As carrots are the main vegetable used in these spiced roasted summer vegetables, I’m sending them off to Shaheen over at Allotment 2 Kitchen.

Vanesther over at Bangers & Mash has given us free rain to use what spice we like for The Spice Trail as long as the finished dish is suitable for Beach & BBQ. Well this roasted vegetable salad is suitable for both.

If you’re fast and your carrots aren’t too dirty, you can just about make this in 30 minutes, so I’m also sending this off to Sarah at Maison Cupcake for Speedy Suppers. Happily, the theme is picnics.

The addition of chives means I can send this picnic vegetable grain salad off to Karen of Lavender and Lovage for her Cooking with Herbs event.