It can be so challenging to eat salads in the winter- especially with the added time strain of washing and chopping. This colourful, savoury, and slightly sweet salad tastes fresh throughout the week- and you only need to prep it once. It is a great way to eat fresh greens without the cooling feeling you often get from salads. Enjoy this easy to prep, inexpensive and tasty option for dinner tonight!
Prep Time: 10 min.
Cook Time: 50 min.
Makes: 4 servings
Ingredients
Salad:
Large head of kale
Large sweet potato (2-3 cups)
4 large beets
4 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 lemons
¼ cup sesame seeds
½ tsp of Himalayan salt
Dressing:
2 Tbsp sugar free mayonnaise (or avocado)
1 Tbsp sugar free dijon mustard
½ cup water
¼ cup avocado or olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
First thing to do is wash, peel and dry your vegetables. Sometimes if the root vegetables are organic you don’t need to peel them, however I find it easier to just put the veggies in a baking soda bath to cleanse, then I rinse them and peel. I wash the kale and lemons together to save time. If you are in WildFit Spring, you can switch out chayote for the sweet potato and daikon radish for the beets.
Next, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Prepare a large baking sheet with a silicone sheet or parchment paper. Using a silicone baking sheet is the best recent enhancement I have found to increasing efficiency in my kitchen. It is so much easier to wash than to scrub a baking sheet.
Next, chop the sweet potato into crouton sized cubes and mix with 2 Tbsp of sesame oil in a large bowl. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and mix well. Pour onto half the baking sheet. These will be the filling, ‘bready’ part of your salad- and once baked will soften and get a little crispy on the outside.
Chop the beets into thin disks or matchsticks, as you prefer. The beets usually take longer to cook than sweet potato, so for simplicity’s sake I make them more thin so that they will finish at the same time. Again, mix the veggies with 2 Tbsp of sesame oil in a large bowl, sprinkling with salt and pepper. Add them to the other half of the baking sheet. Spread all veggies into a single layer -it is nice to keep them on separate halves so that the beets do not bleed into the sweet potatoes. Bake the veggies for 50-60 minutes until beets are tender. Turn halfway through baking, so that both sides can cook and crisp equally.
Remove the stems from kale and add the leaves to a large, clean bowl. Squeeze the juice of 3 lemons onto the kale leaves, add 1 Tbsp of sesame oil and sprinkle Himalayan salt over the leaves and massage them well. This softens the fiber in the leaves so they are more tender and enjoyable to chew. Leave leaves to further “pre-digest” while you finish the recipe.
Whisk up the salad dressing by adding all the ingredients to a small jar and shaking them together. Alternatively, whisk together well. This is a very simple dressing that adds some creaminess, but any dressing you enjoy can be substituted instead.
Once the vegetables are finished roasting and have cooled slightly, plate the kale, add roasted veggies, dressing and garnish with sesame seeds. You can enjoy this as a family immediately, or keep the roasted veg, kale, and dressing separately in airtight containers in the fridge to have a prepped meal throughout the week. It will keep well and stay fresh for 4-5 days.
