Winter can be a great time for warming comfort foods. But if you’re in the market for something a little lighter, then how about a salad? It works well as a main meal, but also could work as a dish on a festive buffet table.
This lively salad is bursting with wonderful, good-for-you flavourful foods!
Serves 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 400g sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 1tsp cumin seeds
- 125g red or white quinoa
- 1 ripe avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and chopped
- 2 cooked beetroot (not in vinegar), chopped
- 2 Spanish Persimon, chopped
Dressing:
- 3tbsp olive oil
- 2tbsp cider vinegar
- 1tsp Dijon mustard
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Croutons:
- 50g butter
- 2 slices white bread, crusts removed
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/Gas Mark 6. Put the sweet potato chunks and red onion into a roasting tin and toss with 2tbsp olive oil. Season, sprinkle with the cumin seeds and roast for 20 minutes, until tender.
- Meanwhile, simmer the quinoa with a pinch of salt in double the volume of water for 15-20 minutes for red quinoa and 8-10 minutes for white. Turn off the heat and cool for 10 minutes.
- In a large serving bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, mustard and a little salt and pepper. Add the quinoa and tip in the sweet potatoes and onion. Gently mix in the avocado, beetroot and Persimon.
- For the croutons, melt the butter in a frying pan and gently fry the bread on both sides until crisp and golden. Use a star-shaped cutter to cut into shapes, or simply slice into cubes. Serve, sprinkled on the salad.
Cook’s tip: You could use butternut squash instead of sweet potato if you’d prefer.
Would love to hear if you give this a go? It is filling, but fairly light and fresh.
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this look so yummy! ill defo have to try this one! i feel like my flatmate owes you a thankyou letter for all the lush meals we have been eating thanks to you lately!
Hehe! Glad to hear the recipes are working out for you 🙂
That looks so nice!! I wish I could actually enjoy salads
Thank you
This looks absolutely delicious. I will definitely have to try this.
Definitely have a go, it’s so tasty!
I love how this looks, the star cutter you’ve used makes it all look so fancy!
It looks fancy, yet so easy!
Oh wow, that looks lovely! I’ll have to give this a go at the weekend x
Let us know how you get on!
Oh gosh that looks absolutely delicious. Avocado and beetroot are two of my favourite flavours so this looks amazing!
So colourful too 🙂
That is so pretty and healthy too. This is exactly the stuff I should be making for the family if I could get myself into gear!
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It looks so impressive, everyone will be chuffed 🙂
Ohh…This looks so lush! Seriously I am drooling over it.
Give it a go 🙂
Oooooh, that does look good. Looks great with the red quinoa too, I haven’t used the red one before but I do fancy this.
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Makes it so nice and colourful!
I never think of salads at this time of year but this looks amazing!
Something a bit different for winter but so tasty!
Oh gosh, I don’t think I have ever seen a Salad like this before and one that I absolutely want to eat right now x
Hehe glad you like the look of it!
I don’t think I’ve ever had persimon before, what does it taste like? This looks a gorgeous bowl of salad, its so bright and colourful. The sweet potatoes must make it really filling too.
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I don’t think I’ve had persimon before but this certainly sounds and looks delicious – I will source some and give it a try 🙂
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This looks so nice and colourful. Really appetising with some fab flavours. X