Quinoa & Roasted Vegetable Bowl with Tahini Aioli

• *You can roast your whole head of cut garlic in the oven at 350F for 60 minutes, drizzled with olive oil and tightly wrapped in aluminum foil, before you make anything else here.

For the Tahini Aioli:

• In a tall and narrow container that will fit your immersion blender, add the sunflower seed oil, whole egg, Dijon mustard, tahini paste, water, minced garlic, lemon zest and juice, red pepper flakes, Kosher salt, and freshly-ground black pepper.
• Use an immersion blender to emulsify the ingredients together until they resemble the consistency of an aioli.
• If your mixture is too thick, you can add another teaspoon or two of water to the mix to thin it out.
• Taste the tahini aioli, and add more lemon, Kosher salt, and freshly-ground black pepper until it tastes perfect to you.
• Set the tahini aioli aside for whenever you are ready to serve.

For the Quinoa:

• Before cooking the quinoa, rinse the grains for 45 seconds under cold water in a strainer in the sink.
• Find a small to medium-sized sauce soup pot, and add 1 Tbsp of olive oil and 1 tsp of Kosher salt.
• Increase the heat to medium-high, and wait until the oil is hot.
• Add the diced white onion, and cook while stirring for 1 minute.
• Add the 1.75 cups of vegetable stock, and bring the mixture to a simmer on high heat.
• Add the rinsed quinoa to the hot vegetable stock, and bring the contents back up to a simmer.
• Reduce the heat to the lowest setting, and cover the pot tightly with an aluminum foil lid.
• Cook the quinoa for roughly 10 minutes, and then remove from the heat.
• Remove the lid, and carefully fluff the quinoa grains with a fork to gently introduce some space between the cooked grains.
• *Avoid stirring the quinoa at this stage.
• Place the aluminum foil lid back on the quinoa, and continue to keep covered at room temperature until you are ready to serve.

For the Roasted Vegetables:

• In case you didn’t roast any garlic earlier, preheat the oven to 350F.
• Cut the top off the whole head of unpeeled garlic, and drizzle some olive oil onto the exposed cloves.
• Wrap the head of garlic in aluminum foil, and bake in the oven at 350F for 60 minutes.
• When the garlic has roasted for 60 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool at room temperature.
• When the garlic has cooled enough to handle, carefully squeeze out the roasted garlic from the head of garlic using your hands, and reserve the contents on a plate for later.
• For the remaining roasted vegetables, preheat the oven to 425F.
• Find a large mixing bowl, and add 3 Tbsp of sunflower seed oil.
• Toss the asparagus, zucchini, squash, pepper, red onion, and cherry tomatoes in the sunflower seed oil, until the vegetables are evenly coated.
• Season the vegetables with Kosher salt.
• Roast the vegetables in the oven at 425F for roughly 15-20 minutes, depending on your desired level of doneness.
• *Depending on the size of your sheet trays and ovens, you will probably need to spread the seasoned vegetables out onto two different sheet trays. The more space you have between the vegetables, the better they will take on color. I prefer to line my sheet trays with parchment paper, as it makes cleaning up much easier.
• While the vegetables are roasting in the oven, gently toast the sesame seeds over medium heat in a dry nonstick saute pan until they are lightly toasted, and set them aside in a small bowl to cool down.
• When the vegetables are roasted and the remaining entrée components and garnishes have been finalized, it is finally time to assemble your roasted vegetable quinoa bowls!
• To assemble the bowls, place a scoop of quinoa into the bottom of each bowl, and top each mound of quinoa with a small scoop of the tahini aioli.
• Add the roasted garlic that you cooked earlier, in addition to a variety of the roasted vegetables.
• Dot the roasted vegetables with small dollops of the tahini aioli.
• Add a sprinkling of lightly toasted sesame seeds to each bowl.
• Garnish each bowl with an array of fresh basil, mint, parsley and cilantro.
• Serve while the roasted vegetables are still warm.