31 Dec Salad Of Roasted Sweet Potatoes And Fresh Fig recipe
My Adapted Jerusalem Version from the cookery books of Ottolenghi are amongst some of my favourites cookery books. I like the relaxed way of cooking, the food bursting with flavours and the simplicity of the food. With simplicity, I mean being creative with simple ingredients. The salads of Ottolenghi are always fantastic, but the ones in Jerusalem are even more tempting. A perfect book to kickstart 2013; munching on delicious salads and losing weight. Life couldn’t get any better!
Last night ( 30 December) I was keen to have a nice comfort meal. I had spotted this salad already in Ottolenghi’s latest book – Jerusalem – and decided it was a perfect match for my porchetta with chillies.
After a quick look at the recipe I noticed I didn’t have all the ingredients, but lots of leftovers in the fridge. I hate to waste food and some of my best meals are ‘fridge meals’; open the fridge and cook with what is available. I am a great believer in using a recipe as a guide as there is nothing better than giving your own interpretation to a dish. Following your own instinct is always a good thing when following a recipe. The number of times I have picked up on mistakes in recipes are countless.
My ‘left over’ dinner was on the 30th of December
Porchetta with a kick, sweet potato salad and fresh fig accompanied by ‘my’ Pommes Dauphinois.
If you are just like me – Love Food Hate Waste – then you might be interested in two excellent initiatives.
1. Love Food Hate Waste – visit their website
2. The Food Cycle Cambridge – visit their website
The Food Cycle not only offers very tasty food, but you can also volunteer. They meet up every Saturday at St. Paul’s Church in Cambridge. Why not come along and join them for lunch or roll up your sleeves and assist in preparing the food?
I will be joining them for lunch on the 5th of January. In future, I hope to help out in the kitchen too on a free Saturday as I tend to run tours for the Cambridge Food Tour runs at the same time as their lunches. Wondering what the food is like? I will share the lunch at the Food Cycle next week with you, but if in the meantime you are wondering what the food is like, check out Afternoontease Blog about her cook up.
Ingredients for 4
4 small sweet potatoes
5 tablespoons of olive oil
40 ml of balsamic vinegar ( glaze, which is the thick one)
4 small red chillies
1 leek
150 gr. soft goat cheese
2 hand full of chopped chives
How do you make it?
Preheat the oven to 240 degrees.
Wash the potatoes, then cut them in half and another time in half so you will have nice wedges. Put them on an oven tray and season it with salt and pepper an drizzle with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix well and pop them into the oven for 25-30 minutes until cooked. Makes sure they don’t turn into mash!
Cut the figs in half, then another time and one more time. When the potatoes are almost finished, cut up the chillies in small slices and slice the leek in slices of 1cm thick. Fry them slightly until soft.
Arrange the sweet potato in a serving dish, add the figs and the leek mixture. Drizzle with the Balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle the chives over the salad and add the goat cheese.
Enjoy!
Gerla
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