A mix of fresh herbs are blended with miso into a pesto style sauce that is drizzled over a select group of veggies, cut just so, then roasted hot and fast for a meal in just twenty minutes! Served over jasmine rice, and drizzled with more of the miso herb pesto, this dish elevates the usual mix of roasted vegetables for an amazing meal.
cook jasmine rice: 15 mins
prep: 15 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
total: 35 mins
You know we all love a plate of roasted vegetables once the weather turns cooler, and it’s an easy way to use up what’s in the fridge. However, in this case, I’m taking it up a notch. At the risk of sounding “hoity-toity”, I’ve “curated” a specific selection of vegetables – cherry tomatoes, leeks, shiitake mushrooms and sweet potato for a colorful blend of varied textured veggies that are roasted up in larger than usual chunks. What this achieves is a pan of roasted veggies that are still bright in color, and have not become mushy. The Garlicky Miso Herb Pesto (also in recipe card below) used on the vegetables before and after roasting, is a divine addition, and served over a pillowy bed of steamy jasmine rice, you’ve got yourself a great meal, no protein required 😉.
What you’ll love about this recipe!
🍋 Bright flavor: the miso adds umami and a rich, savory flavor, but the lemon gives it a great punchy brightness that is a very welcome combo.
🍗🥦 Versatility: this pesto can be used in so many ways (similar to regular Genovese pesto), from topping roasted veggies, rubbing on a chicken before roasting, tossing with pasta, even mixing some with oil as a salad dressing, it’s flavor enhances many dishes.
🧄 Garlicky: I especially love the level of garlic in this pesto. Sometimes raw garlic needs to be kept in check so it does not over power a pesto, but mixed with the miso, in this recipe, the garlic really adds great flavor.
🍃 Herbaceous: In traditional pesto, basil is the main flavor. In this pesto the combination of herbs lends an herby flavor, but the blend makes the flavor less dominant.
🤩 New flavors: The whole is more than the sum of the parts with this recipe, whereby the miso adds so much and melds so well with the blend of herbs, lemon and garlic. It’s a nice change of pace from a cheesy or basil driven pesto.
Ingredient notes
- Vegetables for roasting: I encourage you to use a leek, sweet potato, cherry tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms as specified in the recipe card versus subbing other vegetables because they create a special blend of flavors, colors and textures that makes for a unique and appealing dish.
- Miso herb pesto: a blend of several herbs, white miso and other traditional pesto ingredients are blitzed together quickly to form a uniquely flavorful pesto that is drizzled over the veggies before and after roasting.
- Jasmine rice: it couldn’t be simpler to cook up white jasmine rice in fifteen minutes, but it adds so much and creates a full meal with a wonderful presentation (don’t skip the rinsing of the rice for the fluffiest grains).
Above: at left are the four vegetables chopped in large 1″ ish size shapes and at right is the finished miso herb pesto.
What is miso paste
Miso is a fermented bean paste that is salty but also has a complex flavor that makes it a great ingredient for many recipes. The blend of both fermented soy beans and rice, combined with the amount of time the paste is fermented, creates different types of miso.
Step-by-step instructions
Make the Miso Herb Pesto:
Prepare the herbs: once you have chosen the blend of herbs, be sure to thoroughly rinse them (especially if picked from your garden), before chopping them. Herbs with woody stems like thyme, need to have the leaves stripped from the stems, where as the stems of parsley and basil can be included (sage can go either way- depending on the plant).
Roughly chop the walnuts and garlic and juice lemon: Since the pesto will be heavily blended in the food processor, you can just quickly roughly chop the walnuts and garlic. Juice the lemon, but discard any seeds (they are bitter).
Blend the ingredients: First you’ll blend the herbs, nuts and garlic, then you will add in the miso and lemon, and finally, you will drizzle in the oil, with the processor running.
Process for up to a minute: depending on the size of your processer and the sharpness of your blade, you will process for about a minute. The goal is to achieve a smooth green consistency.
Above: Here is the first stage of blending the ingredients. This shows the herbs, garlic and nuts ground to a pretty fine consistency. Once the miso, lemon and olive oil are added the ingredients will be able to blend into a pure green spread consistency.
Cook the jasmine rice: rinse the rise in a sieve with cool water until the water runs clear. This removes excess starch and ensures the grains will not stick together and will cook up fluffier. Once its rinsed, add the water and cook over medium low heat for 15 min (once you bring it to a boil).
Prep the vegetables: As mentioned, the goal is the cut up the vegetables, keeping them separate by type (versus tossing all four types together) into chunks that are about 1″ in size. You want larger sized veggies so that they do not get mushy during the 20 minutes of roasting.
Season the veggies for roasting: As you can see above, care is taken not to use too much oil on the vegetables. They are also seasoned with salt, pepper and smoked paprika.
Drizzle/dollop the miso herb pesto over the seasoned veggies then place in hot oven to roast for 20 minutes.
Tips for making and serving this recipe
- Serving suggestions: the finished vegetables can be moved with a spatula to a serving platter, while still keeping the four varieties separate. By separate I mean that you can place a few groupings of sweet potatoes around the platter, and a few groupings of leeks around platter, etc, versus randomly mixing all the four veggies together on the platter. This makes for a more attractive presentation.
- Maintaining the integrity of the vegetables: taking care to keep the veggies separate during preparation, and drizzling/dolloping the pesto over the veggies versus smearing it all around the veggies, allows the vegetables to maintain their shape and color through the roasting process. Taking care when plating the finished veggies, as mentioned above, further helps the vegetables hold their shape and color, for an appealing serving platter!
- Miso herb pesto: I’ve specified an amount of pesto to make for this recipe that is less than what is specified in the separate Miso Herb Pesto Recipe I also have on my blog, so there is not too much left over, but feel free to make the larger amount if you want to have it on hand for a couple of weeks.
- Rinsing rice: it’s important to take a couple minutes to run water over the rice in a sieve before you mix it with its cooking water and bring to a boil. The rinsing removes excess starch from the grains, keeping them from getting sticky when cooked and yielding a fluffy texture.
Other recipes using miso pesto
You can make a big batch of Miso Herb Pesto to serve as a salad dressing, pasta sauce, or make Miso Herb Roasted Chicken. Coming soon is Miso Herb Minestrone.
Above: a show stopping presentation is created by placing the roasted veggies on some kale leaves, drizzling with the miso herb pesto, and garnishing with edible flowers (anise blossoms and calendula flowers). Keeping the types of veggies separate from each other adds to the show stopping quality of an arranged dish.
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Miso Pesto Roasted Vegetables Over Jasmine Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup jasmine white rice (uncooked)
Miso Herb Pesto Ingredients
- 2 cups mixed fresh herbs, chopped (parsley, basil, thyme, sage (see notes))
- 1/4 cup raw walnuts, roughly chopped (can sub pine nuts)
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 2 small garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp white miso (this is the milder type of miso)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Vegetables for Roasting
- 1 leek large (or 2 if small)
- 1 sweet potato large (or 2 if small)
- 2 boxes cherry tomatoes (up to 36 cherry tomatoes)
- 6 shiitake mushrooms, medium (more if smaller, or only 4 if they are quite big.)
- smoked paprika (to sprinkle over vegetables before roasting)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (to drizzle over vegetables before roasting)
Method:
Make Miso Herb Pesto – 5 min
- Place the 2 cups mixed fresh herbs, chopped, 1/4 cup raw walnuts, roughly chopped and 2 small garlic cloves in a food processor and blend until everything is finely ground.
- Add in the 2 tbsp white miso and 1/2 lemon, juiced and continue to blend into a paste consistency.
- Gradually add in the 1/4 cup olive oil with the processor running, and run the processor for a minute or so, to get a smooth, green consistency. See notes.
- Use right away, or refrigerate covered for a week or more, to use as you like. The flavor only gets better. See post for additional tips and suggestions for using.
Prepare the rice – 15 min cook time
- Rinse 1 cup jasmine white rice until water runs clear.
- Add rice and 1 3/4 cups water to pot, cover and bring to boil.
- lower heat, keep cover on and cook for approximately 15 min until water is absorbed. Tip: you can turn the heat off just before all the water is absorbed and leave the rice covered off the heat to finish cooking without worrying about any rice sticking to bottom of pot.
Prepare/Roast the veggies – 10 min prep, 20 min cook
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, with top rack placed in upper quarter of the oven.
- Clean and chop 1 leek large,1 sweet potato large, 2 boxes cherry tomatoes, 6 shiitake mushrooms, medium into large-ish pieces. Cherry tomatoes remain whole unless some of them are super big cherries. Shiitakes have the stems removed, then tops are quartered as long as not too small. Leeks are cut into 1/2" or so slices and same for the sweet potato chunks. The goal is to leave them as big as the cherry tomatoes or a bit bigger as per photos.
- Place each set of veggies on sheet pan, keeping the varieties separate as per photos. Drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and smoked paprika
- Take small spoonfuls of the miso herb pesto and drizzle (you might have to thin the pesto with a tad of water for drizzle consistency) or dollop the pesto over the pan (see photo in post). You don't want to smear or rub the pesto into the veggies with your hands, because you want the vegetables to remain in tact, stay separate and maintain their color, so dolloping the pesto helps you to achieve this.
- Place veggies in hot oven and roast until they begin to char. The super hot oven will allow them to cook and char a bit, while not getting mushy, and remaining some of their bright color. Ref. photos in post. Roasting should take no more than 20 minutes.
Serve
- For a show stopping presentation, line a platter with kale, arrange the veggies, still keeping the types separate, and thin the miso pesto a bit with a tad of water or oil, to make it viscous enough to drizzle over the veggies in a swirl. Garnish with fresh herbs and/or edible flowers (I used anise flowers and calendula blossoms). You'd be surprised what flowers are edible- you can google and purchase a couple edible flowers if you'd like to prepare a real beautiful and special looking platter of roasted vegetables like these.