As I have stated last pasta salad season, pasta salad is the epitome of summer and vice versa. With that being said, I know that your social media is absolutely flooded with pasta salad recipes! As is mine. However, I have never seen a pasta salad recipe quite like this. This salad is filled with really flavorful roasted vegetables fresh from the farmers market, and lathered with a really silky summery dressing. When I think of all things that revolve around the summer season; I think pasta salad, sweet corn, colorful produce, smoked cheeses, and green goddess dressing made from creamy avocados. This salad has all of that and then some! Since we are heading towards the dead end of the season soon we might very well be getting tired of the same old Italian pasta salad with the raw vegetables, and cold, oily dressings. As much as I love that category of salads speaking in terms of “pasta”, I love to change things up even more. Introducing my family and all of you Diamonds to dishes you’ve never had even if it’s technically something you’ve tasted a trillion times in your life, makes me so fulfilled! It’s an indescribable feeling to do what I love while introducing the people I love to new possibilities they never knew existed; if created!
Pan roast bread & butter farm fresh corn!
I first started dry roasting the corn with spring onions to really get the flavors to release, and to allow the corn to become blistered on all sides. Then, just before the kitchen got a little too smokey, I added salted butter, paprika, salt, and pepper into the pan and let these slow roast while I chopped up all of my other vegetables that I wanted to fold into this pasta salad.
Roast your veggies on 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until extremely caramelized.
When it comes to my veggies, I either like them raw with exquisite dips, maybe tossed in succulent salads, or really roasted in a hot oven to get them as crispy and tasty as humanly possible. Obviously, in this case, for this specific salad, I went with my second choice.
What vegetables are we using in this recipe?
- Red and white onions. One of each.
- Tropical colored bell peppers. 2-3 depending on the size of each pepper.
- One summer squash.
- One zucchini.
- One skinned eggplant. Also make sure to salt and dry off the excess water before tossing them in with the other vegetables, so that they soak up flavor, instead of becoming soggy.
The seasonings are non-negotiable!
- A good coat of olive oil on all of the veggies.
- Balsamic vinegar. If it’s imported, even better! Mine is and I truly cannot get enough of it. I received it as a birthday gift a few months back and I find ways to incorporate it into just about anything.
- About 7 dashes Worcestershire sauce. I mean.. lucky number 7, right? Lol.
- Sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley and Italian seasoning.
You want the veggies bursting with seasonings! That is what will help bring all of the flavors of this salad together.
While the veggies roast, let’s create the dressing and then build from there!
Since this is a roasted salad after all, we’re not just getting the vegetables toasty, we’re getting the legumes crispy as well. You can use any bean of your choice, but the garbanzo happens to be my favorite. I dry roasted them in a pan until crispy with lemon pepper and chili powder and finished with a bit of really good extra virgin olive oil. Once the vegetables were done getting caramelized and colored to their fullest potential, I mashed together one of the creamiest, yummiest dressings of all time; made with my all time favorite fruit- avocado!
- Mash up 2 avocados to a very smooth paste.
- Pour in 4 tablespoons of imported balsamic vinegar.
- Half of a jar of your favorite blue cheese dressing. I really enjoy a few brands that you find in the refrigerated produce aisle.
- Finely chop the toasted spring onions to give this dressing a punch of onion flavor!
- Now, you might be thinking you need to finish this very simple dressing with a ton of herbs and seasons like we normally do here on the blog, BUT with this recipe, we do not have to do that. It’s totally not necessary! All of the different summer vegetables are seasoned to perfection enough.
After incorporating the dressing completely, fold in all of the roasted and toasted, seasoned vegetables!
This Balsamic Blue Cheese and Roasted Summer Vegetable pasta salad is super silky, succulent, and just down right sensational! If you are pasta salad and roasted veggie lover, this ones for you! Also, if you’re not into avocados, or you get grossed out by blue cheese- like I know a lot of people do, don’t completely cancel this one out! The flavors marry so well together that no one component comes through too strong. If you didn’t genuinely know what the dressing was made out of, you’d never know! I stand by that
Deepfrieddiamonds 
Leave a comment