Sweet Potato, Fig & Pumpkin Seed Salad

This salad is a super tasty seasonal delight sweet potato is one of my favourite ingredients, and if youve got leftover pumpkin from Halloween, you could use that here too! Ive added delicious dried figs and pumpkin seeds to the mix here, two things I love to combine as a snack. Time to get cooking!

Recipe (Serves 4-5)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 medium courgette
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 large sweet potato
• 3 tbsp of pumpkin seeds
• 6 dried figs
• 3 handfuls of spinach leaves, washed

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C (non-fan oven). Line a baking tray (you might need two!) with tinfoil and grease the tinfoil with a little oil.
2. Wash your veggies. De-seed the pepper and remove the core. Slice the pepper into lengthways pieces. Slice the head off the courgette and then chop it up into coins.
3. Slice the sweet potato (skin on) into 1 inch or bite-friendly chunks.
4. Pop the sweet potato into a big bowl. Drizzle some oil and honey onto the sweet potato chunks and use a spoon to stir them up to coat them in the oil and honey. Add the cinnamon and stir again.
5. When the oven is ready, spread the sweet potato onto the baking tray and if you have space, add the courgette and red pepper slices. If not, roast them on a separate tray.
6. Roast the veggies and sweet potato in the oven for 30-40 minutes. The red pepper and courgette will probably be finished before the sweet potato, and if so, just pop them onto a plate while they the sweet potato chunks finish. Youll know when the veggies are done when theyre slightly charred, and the sweet potato will be done when you can easily stick a fork into them! When done, remove the baking trays from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes.
7. Pop the spinach leaves into a big mixing bowl. Add the pumpkin seeds. Chop the figs into quarters or small pieces and add those to the bowl too.
8. Finally, add the sweet potato and veggies to the bowl. Mix everything up!
9. Youre good to go! If you want to add a dressing, I like to add a little bit of balsamic vinegar on top, but the flavours are good as is!

Enjoy guys! Tag me if you try this one out @theirishbalanceon Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara :) x