Oven Roasted Asparagus & Potatoes with PeanutButter & Buttermilk Dressing

Past 10 days were a blur at our house.. Between Karva Chauth party and my girl gang gathered at the house for the wedding, I hardly had time to squeeze in a blog-post. Those were such good days and in all honesty, I didn’t want them to end! Exciting times filled with fun, laughter and so much joy!! I’m going to cherish the precious memories of this time spent with friends and family forever. Moments like these is what makes our life worthwhile.

Between all the festivities of the past weekend and coming weekend, I am doing a detox of my own with fruits, soups, stir-fries and salads. Gearing up for the next big weekend, you see! You won’t believe how many great recipes I have lined up for you all! But before that enjoy this humble dish which truly deserves a place in your repertoire! 🙂

Today’s recipe is simple but totally lip-smacking.

I mean it has potatoes & peanut butter in it so of course! 😉

Just some roasted veggies with healthy yet delicious dressing. Perfect for the ‘touch of cold’ weather we are experiencing here.. It is great as a side dish or as a whole meal in itself.. I had it for dinner and could not finish it entirely. The recipe can easily be doubled, tripled or quadrupled as per your needs. I used regular potatoes but baby potatoes would be amazing too!

Roasted Asparagus & Potatoes with Peanut Butter & Buttermilk Dressing

Serves: 2 as a side-dish or 1 as a lunch/dinner

Ingredients:

Roasted vegetables:

• 4 small potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes or 12 baby potatoes, halved
• 20 spears of asparagus cut into 5-inch pieces, hard woody ends discarded
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Dressing:

• 4 Tbsp buttermilk
• 1 Tbsp + 1/2 tsp crunchy peanut butter
• 1/4 tsp honey
• 1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF. Arrange prepared potatoes and asparagus on the baking tray. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper and toss together. Let it bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove the asparagus from baking tray and return the tray to oven. Let the potatoes bake for another 15 to 20 minutes till fork-tender.
2. In a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the dressing.
3. Serve the roasted vegetables smothered with the dressing.

Enjoy!!

Skinny Beetroot Hummus

I’m a huge fan of hummus and can’t get enough! I can have it for all three meals of my day. Oh-yeah! 🙂

A quick, low-fat, protein-packed and super-easy home-made hummus! A pink hummus! As a dear friend quoted ‘If I could I would cover my life in pink!’ I would too!

The hummus gets its pink color from the addition of a boiled beetroot. If you are not a big fan of beetroot, still add it as I promise you won’t be able to taste it at all! It’s sooo good!!!

I stirred in lemon zest to finished hummus and it went a notch up! It became truly Ah-mah-‘zing’ actually!!!

Cheese-lovers can add Parmesan cheese (to be added during blending) to this lovely appetizer but I wanted to keep it low-fat so I skipped it.

So let’s blend-blend!

Skinny Beetroot Hummus

Serves: 4 | Stays fresh for 3-4 days, refrigerated in airtight container

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpeas, soaked overnight, boiled and drained
• 1 medium beetroot, peeled, boiled and roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 Tbsp Tahini
• 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• salt, to taste
• zest from 1 lemon

Directions:

Add boiled chickpeas to the blender jar. Add garlic cloves, tahini and 2 Tbsp olive oil to jar and blend.

Add 1 Tbsp lemon juice and salt and blend again.

Add beetroot pieces and remaining lemon juice and olive oil to blender and blend till smooth and creamy.

Stir in lemon zest, transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

*Soak chickpeas overnight. If short on time, soak them in just boiled water for at least 3-4 hrs. It will take a bit long to cook but will do the job.
*I used pressure cooker for boiling chickpeas and beetroot both. I boiled them separately.

Accompaniment options: Pita bread, Nachos or Tortilla chips, My Skinny Carrot Sticks, veggie crudites or simply a spread on toast! Sky is the limit actually!! 😉