One tray halloumi and roasted veggies with pesto rice

This delicious and hearty vegetarian is the perfect one-tray-bake dinner! This recipe features caramelised roasted sweet potatoes, mushroom and capsicum, paired with pesto rice and topped off with grilled halloumi. 

Not only is this dish so comforting and veggie pack, but there’s also no need to follow the recipe perfectly and your meal will always come out great. Feel free to swap around the vegetables to anything that you might want, but keep in mind that they need to roast for 30mins. 

If you’re thinking about using more dry vegetables, consider adding extra pesto sauce or lemon juice to ensure your roast doesn’t come out too dry. 

We also highly recommend serving this meal with a large dollop of hummus! 

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into rounds 1-1.5 inches thick
• 225 g halloumi, cut into 6 slices
• 1 capsicum sliced
• 150 g mushrooms, sliced*
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges
• 1 Tbsp Balsamic glaze, you can use balsamic vinegar if you don’t have any glaze
• 150 g  cherry tomatoes
• 250 g prepared rice
• 3 Tbsp pesto

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C 
2. Lightly oil a roasting dish and place the sweet potato rounds in, brushing oil on top. Place in the oven for 20 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and flip over the sweet potato rounds before adding in the other vegetables – mushrooms, onion, capsicum and cherry tomatoes. Drizzle oil and balsamic vinegar (or glaze) on top.
4. Place back in the oven for a further 30 minutes. It’s ready when all the vegetables are nicely charred and most of the mushroom and tomato juices have evaporated.
5. Heat up your rice. If you’re using leftover rice, just microwave it for a minute or so. If you’re using a packet of easy cook rice or frozen rice, cook it to the package instructions.
6. Mix the pesto and rice together and scoop into the pan with the vegetables. I like to use the rice to fill any spaces in the pan.
7. Arrange the halloumi slices on top and brush or spray with olive oil.
8. Turn the oven’s grill setting to medium/high and grill for about 5 minutes, until the halloumi is crispy and browned.
9. Serve immediately with scoops of hummus on top.