Roasted Summer Vegetables with Baked Feta Cheese
This family-style roasted summer vegetable side platter is fairly easy to make, and tastes wonderful. The flavors from the roasted vegetables, feta cheese, and fresh herbs go perfectly when served alongside a wide variety of entrees. The following recipe serves four people, with a good bit of vegetables left over for the next day.
Ingredients
- ½ medium-sized eggplant (peeled and cubed)
- 1 tsp Kosher salt (for salting eggplant)
- ½ zucchini (cut into ¼” rounds)
- ½ summer squash (cut into ¼” rounds)
- ½ red onion (cut into 1/8” slices)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
- 8 oz Feta cheese (or more if you prefer) (broken into large bite-sized chunks)
- 8 stalks of asparagus (ends trimmed off)
- ¼ cup olive oil (for coating vegetables)
- 2 tsp Kosher salt (for seasoning the vegetables)
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- ¼ tsp dried oregano
- Zest of ½ lemon
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ¼ cup fresh basil (finely sliced)
- ¼ cup fresh mint (finely sliced)
- 2 Tbsp fresh chives (finely sliced)
- 2 Tbsp fresh dill (finely sliced)
- Freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425F.
- Peel and cube the eggplant.
- Salt the cubes of eggplant on all sides, and allow the eggplant cubes to drain on paper towels for 15 minutes while you prepare your two roasting trays.
- For the first roasting tray, combine the sliced zucchini, summer squash, and red onion in a large mixing bowl with some olive oil, Kosher salt, red pepper flakes, and dried oregano.
- Add these vegetables to the first roasting tray, and spread them out so they have space between them.
- *We are using two roasting trays here to give the vegetables enough space so they aren’t crowded together while they cook in the oven. If the vegetables are touching each other, they will steam, and will have a harder time taking on color in the oven.
- For the second roasting tray, toss the salted eggplant in a bit of olive oil and set aside.
- *The asparagus and Feta cheese are added to the sheet tray with the eggplant during the final 10 minutes of cooking, after the eggplant on the second roasting tray has cooked for about 12 minutes.
- Add the two sheet trays with vegetables to the oven, and bake at 425F for 12 minutes.
- After twelve minutes of roasting, remove the first sheet tray with the zucchini, squash, and red onion from the oven, and set the vegetables aside while the second set of vegetables finish cooking.
- Toss the asparagus lightly in olive oil.
- Add the asparagus and Feta cheese to the second sheet tray with the eggplant that is still cooking in the oven.
- Continue to bake the second sheet tray for another 10 minutes, or until the asparagus is just barely fully cooked.
- While the second sheet tray is finishing baking, prepare your fresh herbs and set them aside.
- When the second sheet tray is done baking, remove it from the oven.
- Arrange the medley of vegetables and Feta cheese on a large serving platter.
- Garnish the vegetable and Feta platter with some lemon zest and freshly-squeezed lemon juice.
- Season the vegetables and Feta with a sprinkling of Kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Add the fresh basil, fresh mint, fresh chives, and fresh dill.
- Serve while the vegetables are still slightly warm.
Notes
- Add the lemon and fresh herbs like basil and mint right before serving.
- Any leftover vegetables will taste great when mixed with a salad for lunch the following day.
- Use whatever vegetables you like for this recipe.