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sweet potato salad

Sweet Potato Salad

This is a salad built on contrast rather than a single dominant flavor. The allspice pushes the sweet potato somewhere unexpected, the feta and walnuts keep the sweetness in check, and the maple Dijon dressing pulls all of it into one thing. It takes about half an hour, most of which is the oven working while you assemble the rest. Serve it while the cubes are still warm.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Course: Salad
Cuisine: American
Calories: 299

Ingredients
  

For the Roasted Sweet Potato
  • 1 medium sweet potato
  • 1/2 Tbsp avocado oil
  • 1 tsp all spice
  • sea salt
  • pepper
For the Salad Bowl
  • 5 oz lettuce
  • 1/4 red onion finely chopped so it spreads through the bowl
  • 1/4 cup dill finely chopped
  • 1/4 avocado diced at the last minute not in advance
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
  • 1/3 cup crumbled feta
For the Maple Dijon Dressing
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil

Method
 

  1. Preheat the oven and the pan. Set the oven to 400F. Put your baking sheet into the oven while it preheats so the pan gets hot, which keeps the sweet potato from sticking.
  2. Season the sweet potato. While the oven heats, peel and cube the sweet potato. Put the cubes in a shallow bowl and season with the avocado oil, all spice, sea salt, and pepper, then work the seasoning in with your hands until every surface looks evenly coated.
  3. Roast. Add the seasoned cubes to the hot baking sheet and return it to the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring midway so the cubes brown on more than one side.
  4. Build the salad bowl. While that roasts, add the lettuce, finely chopped onion, finely chopped dill, coarsely chopped walnuts, dried cranberries, and crumbled feta cheese to a large salad bowl.
  5. Shake the dressing. Add the Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and olive oil to a sealable jar and shake until well combined. It should look uniformly cloudy rather than showing separate layers.
  6. Dice the avocado. About 5 minutes before the sweet potato will be done roasting, cut the 1/4 avocado into dice and add it to the salad as well. Leaving it this late keeps it green and intact.
  7. Combine and toss. Add the roasted sweet potato to the salad bowl, drizzle the dressing over everything, and give it a good toss.

Notes

Chop the dill finely, as specified. A quarter cup of coarsely torn dill would give you overwhelming mouthfuls in some bites and nothing in others, while fine chopping spreads that flavor evenly.
Coarse chopping is right for the walnuts for the opposite reason. You want pieces large enough to register as crunch, not walnut dust that disappears into the dressing.
Prep the dressing in a jar you can seal properly. A loose lid under vigorous shaking makes a mess, and the shaking is what does the actual work here.
Keep the avocado in its skin until the 5 minute mark. It stays fresher there than sitting cut on a board.