Roasted Beet & Sweet Potato Salad

This salad is so delicious but it takes a bit of time to prepare, most of it inactive while you wait for the veggies to roast. An hour to prepare a lunch dish can be a little unreasonable. If you have the time, definitely do it. If not, I suggest making roasted veggies for dinner the night before then use the left overs to make the salad for lunch the next day.

Serves 2

1/2 large sweet potato (or 1 small), peeled and cut into chunks
2 small beets (or 1 large), trimmed, peeled and cut into chunks (use gloves to avoid red hands!)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 avocado
1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
1 tbsp pine nuts
2 tbsp goat's milk feta cheese
3 cups mixed greens (baby spinach, spring mix, arugula etc)

dressing:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
pinch salt
pinch pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Arrange sweet potato chunks on a baking tray and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Arrange beet chunks on a separate baking tray and drizzle with the other 1 tbsp olive oil. Separate trays are necessary otherwise your lovely orange sweet potato will turn pink.

3. Roast veggies in the oven until tender, about 30 mins-40mins.

4. While veggies are cooking, roast pine nuts over medium heat in a dry skillet. Remove from skillet just as they start to turn golden brown. Do not leave unattended as they can burn quickly and you will need to start over!

5. In a glass container with a tight fitting lid, mix dressing ingredients and shake well.

6. Arrange the lettuce on two plates. Top with red onion slices.

7. When cooked, remove veggies from oven.

8. Peel, pit and slice the avocado. Arrange avocado pieces on top of lettuce (1/4 avocado on each plate).

9. Arrange roasted sweet potato and beet pieces on top of salad (1/2 on each plate).

10. Sprinkle pine nuts and goat's feta over top of each salad.

11. Finish each salad with a drizzle of dressing.

12. Serve immediately, while veggies are still warm.

13. Sit and savour. Smile at the gorgeous, healthy meal you have created.

Variations:

- Use walnuts instead of pine nuts
- sub butternut squash for the sweet potato
- try blue cheese instead of feta or...
- omit the goat's feta for a vegan dish

The possibilities are endless!