Pushing past my disappointment, I decided to create my own recipe for a similar salad; so off to the grocery store I went. I picked up baby spinach, real maple syrup, pecans, goat cheese, Dijon mustard and sweet potatoes.
Awesome, I have all my ingredients and some other goodies at home that could be useful. Now comes the time where trial and error hopefully come together to create a masterpiece! If this concoction turns out, I can see this being a staple meal for the summer.
I really love salads but I can get bored of them quickly. Also, even though we think of salads as "healthy", you have to be really careful about all of the toppings and dressings that you pile on. Some salads can have just as many calories and fat as eating a cheeseburger so you aren't really "eating light" in that situation. I like to pack a lot of protein, like chicken, tuna or beans in the salad to make it filling, load up greens that pack a lot of nutrition like kale or spinach and making my own dressing so I know exactly what I am getting.
So here is what I came up with..... MAJOR KEY ALERT, it was fucking delicious!
This was seriously, so damn good! You could add chicken to this too if you need some meat but I liked it as is. I loved the maple glazed sweet potatoes, they tasted like candy. The goat cheese gives a nice zip, the pecans give a satisfying crunch and that dressing...... Oh my good God, I will be making this on the regular to keep in my fridge and using it on everything! It's sweet, tangy and versatile.
I like to serve this with the potatoes still a little warm because it melts the goat cheese into the salad and mixed with the dressing.... it makes this summery salad taste rich and creamy. This can definitely be a meal on its own or served as a side for your next BBQ cookout.
The next day, I also used this salad to make a really magnificent sandwich wrap for lunch. I threw a large spoonful of the salad on a tortilla wrap, cut up some leftover rotisserie chicken and drizzled a little hot sauce on top. Voila! This salad holds up well, even with the dressing on it, to use again the next day.
Bring this salad to your next BBQ and people will be begging you for the recipe!
Spinach Summer Salad with Sweet Potato
Tricked by Pinterest to create my own version of a what I thought was a salad recipe. This salad turns it out with flavour and zest for days.
Ingredients
- 1 large Shallot (diced)
- 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 Tbsp Lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp Real maple syrup
- 5 Tbsp EVOO
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 6 -8 cups Baby spinach
- 3/4 cup Pecans
- 2 large Sweet potato (peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks)
- 1 cup Goat cheese (crumbled)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, place potatoes on a baking sheet and coat with 1 Tbsp on the EVOO, some salt and pepper and 1 of the Tbsp of the Real Maple Syrup. Toss the in the oven for about 35-40 mins until golden brown.- To make the dressing, throw the diced shallots, lemon juice, Dijon, remaining maple syrup and EVOO, salt and pepper to taste in a container with a good lid. Seal that lid well and then shake the ingredients like your life depends on it. You can also make this in a blender for a thicker creamier dressing or dip. Place in the fridge until the potatoes are ready.- Once the potatoes are ready, remove from oven and let cool down for a few minutes until slightly warm.- Place the spinach, goat cheese and pecans in a salad bowl. Pile the slightly warm sweet potatoes on top of the salad and then drizzle with the dressing to taste (I used about half of the dressing yield). Then toss and serve either as a side or as a meal.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 as a side, 3 as a meal
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