For this month’s Spice Tribe recipe, I wanted to try out a quick lunch or dinner recipe that uses up some fridge ingredients. You know the drill, you buy a bunch of vegetables at the beginning of the week and by the weekend, you may or may not have used them all yet. You can breathe a bit of life into vegetables by simply seasoning and roasting them and I love the idea of making a hearty dinner with minimal work.

Using Spice Tribe’s Ancient Halaby Middle Eastern Chile Blend, I wanted to combine some well-known flavors thanks to this Middle Eastern blend of Aleppo chiles, paprika, coriander, and garlic and one of my favorite underrated spices, sumac. It’s lemony flavor works so well with vegetables and the addition of fresh lemon in this recipe really brightens everything up! And to round things out, there’s a little bit of tahini in the dressing for some extra body and depth.

This recipe requires a little bit of multitasking, but it’s all super easy once you have the veggies in the oven and water boiling for the pasta. I’d suggest working on the dressing while everything else is cooking so the entire dish comes together in a breeze. Let’s get to it!

Spiced Veggie Pasta Salad

Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4-6

1 small zucchini, diced

1 medium broccoli crown, florets and part of stem chopped

1/2 small yellow onion, diced

1 16oz can garbanzo beans, drained

1 large lemon, zested and juiced

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp Spice Tribe Ancient Halaby Middle Eastern Chile Blend

Large pinch kosher salt

2 cups dry ditalini pasta, cooked according to package instructions and set aside (reserve a little bit of pasta water if necessary)

Sesame seeds, for garnish

Dressing

2 large lemons, zested and juiced

2 tsp aged sherry vinegar or apple cider vinegar

1 tsp ST Ancient Halaby spice blend

Large pinch kosher salt

Large pinch cracked black pepper

1 tbsp tahini

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 green onions, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 400ºF with a half sheet pan inside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the zucchini, broccoli, onion, garbanzo beans, lemon zest and juice, extra virgin olive oil, Spice Tribe Ancient Halaby spice blend, and a large pinch of kosher salt. Toss everything together and set aside. Once the oven is preheated, pour the veggies and spread them out on the preheated sheet pan and roast for 15 minutes. You should hear a nice sizzle here!

Next, to make the dressing, whisk together the lemon zest and juice, sherry vinegar, Spice Tribe Ancient Halaby spice blend, kosher salt, black pepper, tahini, and extra virgin olive oil in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the sliced green onions. Toss in the cooked pasta, stirring to fully combine.

By now, the vegetables should be done. Carefully remove them from the oven and fold in the cooked vegetables to the dressed pasta, adding a little bit of pasta water if necessary to loosen things up. Stir well. Taste and adjust seasoning with more kosher salt and Spice Tribe Ancient Halaby spice blend. Garnish with sesame seeds. Enjoy hot or cold!