Sweet Potato, Lettuce, & Spiced Rice Salad

This stunner of a salad! It came to be by throwing in a bunch of left over foods that was in my fridge: baked caramelized sweet potatoes, cooked rice, and lettuce with a delicious ginger salad dressing.

I topped it with toasted nuts and chopped celery, and spring onion and all these round it out to create a bold, beautiful winter salad. Been so obsessed with salads this winter and this salad really hit the spot.

The lettuce offers a nutritious, green base. The ginger in the salad dressing balances the sweetness of the caramelized sweet potatoes. Rice felt like it needed to be in the dish, since it offers such a great, chewy-tender texture and ground-spicy flavour. I needed some carbohydrates in my meal but you can always substitute the rice with protein like quinoa, beans or chick peas.

This is a somewhat large salad that makes great leftovers. Be sure to store the salad and dressing separately if you intend to have leftovers that last for another meal. Unless if you are sharing it with someone. Go 'head and dig in.

Ingredients:

Spiced Rice

1/2 cup rice

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of each ground cinnamon, cloves, cumin seeds, black pepper, nutmeg, turmeric

For the Salad

3 large lettuce leaves, chopped

1/2 cup spiced rice

2 large sweet potatoes peeled and sliced into 1 inch cubes

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil

3/4 cup chopped pecans and almonds

2 tablespoons chopped spring onion

2 tablespoons chopped celery

Ginger dressing

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Procedure:

To make the spiced rice: Cook the rice the way you normally make it. Add all the oil and spices to a skillet, cook for about 30 seconds, add the cooked rice and fry for only 2 minutes.

To roast the sweet potatoes: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease the baking tray with oil. In a small bowl, mix together oil, turmeric, and salt. Place the cubed sweet potato into the bowl and mix well. Place the sweet potatoes in the baking tray and roast for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing halfway, until they are caramelized on the edges and tender when pierced through with a fork. Leave the oven on and let the sweet potatoes cool for a few minutes.

To make the dressing: simply combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined. Set aside.

To make the whole salad

Layout the lettuce in a large round bowl.

Combine the spiced rice,roasted sweet potatoes, nuts, onions and celery in a large serving bowl then add to the lettuce bowl.

If you’re serving the salad immediately, go ahead and drizzle most of the dressing on top. Toss to combine, let the salad rest for a few minutes so the rice has time to absorb some of the dressing, and serve.

If you’re planning to have leftovers, divide the salad into portions and drizzle dressing on each salad as needed.

Enjoy!