Oven Roasted Salad Is A Warm Take On A Girl Dinner Favorite

The essence of "girl dinner" is a meal that requires little to no preparation and uses anything lying around the kitchen. It isn't meant to be aesthetic or complicated — it's supposed to be an easy dinner that answers your cravings, whatever they may be. Although the original girl dinners were side-dish and snack-based, like when girl dinner took over TikTok with delicious plates of breads and cheeses, the bounds constraining girl dinner are certainly flexible.

A curated salad, for example, might be your girl dinner of choice. Salads are low maintenance and can use up whatever assortment of vegetables are sitting in your fridge. To level up your salad, or match the types of vegetables you have, you can even oven-roast your meal. Some may argue girl dinners are meant to be quickly assembled and an oven adds to this time, but really, girl dinners are supposed to match the mood. During the fall and winter, a warm salad makes a cozy and filling meal.

A warm salad may sound odd, but roasted vegetables certainly don't. Although this meal is mainly composed of different types of vegetables that taste great when roasted in the oven, it can't be a salad without some lettuce. Romaine and kale are both durable options that will come out of the oven slightly softened and maybe even a bit charred, adding to the salad's flavor. Then, round out your meal with a variety of cubed and chopped vegetables. The options for roasted vegetables are quite extensive, but the more the merrier for this salad. The most obvious choices are root vegetables, like sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, and onions. Next are cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Others, like tomatoes, peppers, and legumes will also work well.

Naturally, these vegetables should be seasoned before they go in the oven. Seasoning is another opportunity to add more personalization to your girl dinner. To match the meal's cozy feeling, spices like cumin, ginger, and cayenne will fill the vegetables with warmth and flavor. Each vegetable can take on a different combination of seasonings, too, and should be placed on different parts of the baking sheet to absorb their respective flavors before you toss them together in the finished salad.