Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sweet Potato and Spinach Salad with Maple Dressing

This was one of those things I threw together with the crap I had around that turned out to be really good. I don't normally like to post things like salad - it seems cheap, since it barely involves actual cooking - but perhaps one day you, too, will have the following crap lying around, and will be able to make this delicious salad, which is definitely substantial enough for a meal.



Ingredients

1 small or medium sweet potato, sliced in 1/2" rounds
a plate worth of spinach
handful of hazelnuts, chopped
a sprinkling of blue cheese
equal squirts of maple syrup, olive oil, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar

Directions

There are hardly directions here since, this being a salad, there's not much to do. You do want to roast your sweet potato slices at around 350 for 15-25 minutes; lay them flat in a single layer on a baking pan, coat both sides with olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on before you do. Meanwhile, assemble everything else. Whisk together in equal parts some maple syrup, olive oil, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar; adjust to taste. I find I need extra lemon juice to cut the vinegary taste of the vinegar, but I know some people are into that. For a nice presentation you should hold off on sprinkling the nuts and cheese until the sweet potato slices have been laid on your bed of spinach, but it certainly doesn't really matter. Then you just pour the dressing on top.

Voila.