Roasted Sweet Potato in a Herb and Nut Salad, with Maple Chilli Dressing
Joe Baker
Roasted Sweet Potato in a Herb and Nut Salad, with Maple Chilli Dressing
I first made this a year or so ago, looking for a yummy alternative to roasted potatoes for a daughter who's never really liked potatoes. And on the first bite I knew it would be a winner — a vivid and colourful dish, with dramatic and intense flavours, and a lovely variety of textures. But beware — it's highly addictive.
This is an easy recipe to prepare in advance, with the oven on a timer to be finished, say, 20mins after you finish work for the day — the perfect amount of time to finish preparing the last additions, or, say, for making a cocktail to enjoy as an aperitif.
Serves: 4, generously; Vegetarian/Vegan; Preparation time: 10 mins + 15 mins; Cooking time: 45–50 mins
- 2 large or 5 small sweet potatoes
- 3 tbsps olive oil
- 50g of nuts — pecans work very well; walnuts or hazelnuts are delicious alternatives
- 30g fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 30g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
- 4 spring onions, roughly chopped
- salt flakes
For the dressing:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic or sherry vinegar
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- one fresh red chilli, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
- and optionally
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- ½ tsp cinnamon
You'll also need:
- two large, flat ceramic roasting dishes — one for roasting, one for serving
- a flat baking sheet
- several smallish bowls for chopped and prepared elements
- 1.Preheat the oven to ~190°C or gas mark 5.
- 2.Wash the sweet potatoes, but do not peel. Chop them into chunks, roughly 2.5cm squares. Place them in a ceramic roasting dish. Cover in olive oil, sprinkle with salt flakes, and mix with a large spoon until the sweet potato chunks are thoroughly covered. Place in the hot oven to roast for around 45 mins.
- 3.Put the nuts on the baking sheet and spread out. Roast them in the top of oven for 7 mins — you'll need to keep them on a timer, as it's easy to forget them! Take the baking sheet out, turn the nuts over and roast for a further 3 mins.
- 4.Once the nuts have cooled, chop them roughly and set aside in a bowl.
- 5.Roughly chop the fresh parsley and coriander and put into a bowl together. Roughly chop the spring onions and add them to the bowl. Mix well.
- 6.In a third bowl, add all the ingredients for the vinaigrette. If you like the dressing, you may like to increase all the amount of each ingredient by up to double.
- 7.Check the sweet potatoes once or twice towards the end of the cooking time, giving them a good turn to make sure they're all basted adequately. You may like to give them an extra five-or-so minutes to make sure they're crisp on that outside and nicely soft on the inside, but be careful not to over-cook them and turn the sweet potatoes mushy.
- 8.Once the sweet potatoes are done, remove them from the oven and toss into a second, cold roasting dish. This is the dish you'll serve it in, so you may like to choose a 'prettier' second dish. The dish needs to be cold because if you add the cool liquid vinaigrette to a hot dish it may well crack.
- 9.Add the chopped nuts and the chopped herbs to the roasted sweet potatoes. Mix well.
- 10.Add the vinaigrette and mix well.
Serve at once — the dish is at its best when the sweet potatoes are still warm. Or serve at room temperature, if there's any left the next day!
