Salads are so easy to throw together and there are such a variety of ingredients available nowadays.  It used to be a salad was a bit of limp lettuce, a tomato and some cucumber and perhaps some cress!

There are no rules when it comes to making a salad, use whichever lettuce you like or try a salad without lettuce.  Add whichever vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, seeds you have at hand and you’ll come up with a great salad.  This is what happened when I created this salad.  I hadn’t been to the shop but I had some roast sweet potato in the fridge (I often roast or steam a batch of vegetables and keep them in the fridge to snack on or for salads), a lone pomegranate and some other salad items that needed using.  I also had a tin of mixed beans in the cupboard that I added too.

So this recipe really isn’t a proper recipe!  It’s a basic outline of a salad but as I often say use whatever you have and enjoy to eat!  I love the flavour combination of the sweet potato with the tartness of the pomegranate and I hope you do too.  But when it comes to lettuce and the other salad ingredients, use whatever you have!!

Serves 2

Ingredients

-1 large sweet potato, peeled & cut into large chunks

-1 tsp. coconut oil or olive oil

-3 – 4 large handfuls of lettuce of your choice (I used mixed baby leaves)

-selection of vegetables and/or beans of your choice

-1 pomegranate, seeds removed and juice kept aside for dressing

Dressing

-juice from pomegranate

-1/2 Tbsp. olive oil

-1 tsp.honey

-salt & pepper to taste

How To Make

Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F.  Put the chopped sweet potato a baking sheet and coat with the oil.

Roast the sweet potato in the oven for 30 minutes, tossing halfway through.  Once roasted remove and set aside.

Whilst the sweet potato is roasting, slice the pomegranate in half.  Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and  squeeze the pomegranate halves over the sieve.  Remove any white pith from the seeds.  Set the seeds aside.

To the pomegranate juice, add the remaining dressing ingredients and whisk until combined.

In a large bowl add the salad ingredients and toss gently.

If serving immediately pour over the salad dressing (enough to your liking).  If making the salad ahead of time, don’t pour the dressing over until just before serving or else you’ll have a soggy salad….not ideal!

The dressing can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Enjoy 🙂