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Holly Campbell

Roasted sweet potato, eggplant, capsicum and crispy chickpea salad


Roasted vegetables are great; they can be paired with any kind of protein to make a balanced meal. As well as providing us with the vitamins and minerals we need to be healthy, they are also delicious and incredibly easy to prepare. All you need is a little foresight to get them in the oven so they are ready by the time the hunger hits. It is always nice to be able to spruce them up a bit and so when I was preparing a meal for my family the other night I was trying to formulate a side dish for our fish that wasn’t just the standard sweet potato and peas that we often have. I pretty much had to work with what we had in the fridge and the result was this salad. The roasted sweet potato provides the bulk with the eggplant and capsicum keeping the flavour interesting. I think salads always need something crunchy and something creamy to satisfy the palate. Hence, I quickly roasted up some chickpeas and used my obsession with pesto to formulate a creamier dressing.

I’m sure you could substitute the sweet potato for any other variety of potato just as you could probably roast up any veggies you have on hand and it will still taste great. The entire plate was demolished by my family but I’m sure it would taste great cold for lunch the next day paired with a boiled egg or some tuna.



Ingredients

· 2 large sweet potatoes

· 1 red capsicum

· 1 large eggplant

· 1 can chickpeas

· Olive oil

· Paprika

· Cumin

· Sea Salt

· Pepper

Yogurt Pesto Dressing

· ½ bunch basil

· ½ cup cashews

· 1 clove garlic

· 1/3 cup parmesan cheese

· 1 teaspoon lemon zest

· 2 tablespoons lemon juice

· 2 tablespoons olive oil

· Sea salt



Method

Pre heat oven to 220 degrees. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Dice the sweet potato, capsicum and eggplant into cubes. Place the sweet potato on one tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, cumin and paprika. Put the red capsicum and eggplant on the other tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place both trays in the oven to roast. In the meantime, drain and rinse the chickpeas. Pat dry with some paper towel and place in a bowl. Drizzle with some olive oil and season generously with salt, pepper, paprika and cumin. After about 30 minutes the eggplant and capsicum should be soft. Remove it from the oven and put in a bowl.

Spread the chickpeas on the same tray and place into the oven. Check the sweet potato at the same time and flip if necessary. Bake for another 20 minutes, rotating the chickpeas after ten minutes. They should be crispy when you take them out, so continue to cook if they need a bit longer.

To make the dressing place the cashews, basil, garlic and parmesan in a food processor and pulse until combined. Then add the yogurt, lemon zest and juice, olive oil and sea salt. Pulse until a thick dressing is formed. Add a dash more water or olive oil if the dressing is too thick.

To construct the salad place the sweet potato, eggplant and capsicum on the bottom and sprinkle the crispy chickpeas over the top. Spread the dressing over the top and season with salt and pepper.

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