Day 15: Warm sweet potato and barley salad
OK, so enough soups for a while. Found a recipe for a salad and changed it a bit to make it more ‘us’. It is mostly vegetarian save the prosciutto and chicken stock. Perhaps veggie stock would have been better but we didn’t have any so we used chicken stock.
The end result was a very tasty and filling salad. We’ll have this again – it works both in summer and winter.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of pearled barley
- 2.5 cups of chicken (or vegetable) stock
- 750g sweet potato
- 2 tbs honey
- 2-3 slices of prosciutto
- 60g baby spinach leaves
- 1/3 cup pecans, slightly crumbled or chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic unpeeled
- Meredith feta cheese and some nice balsamic vinegar to top (optional)
How:
1. Pour the stock into a saucepan and add the barley. Bring to the boil then lower heat and simmer for 30 mins. The stock should reduce completely in this time. Pour the barley into a colander and stir to release some heat and any excess liquid.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 deg C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
3. Peel the sweet potato and cut into 1cm thick slices. Arrange the sweet potato slices onto the tray in a single layer.
4. Mix the honey and oil in a small bowl. Brush the mixture over the sweet potatoes, both sides. Keep the remaining mixture for later. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper and roast for 15 mins.
4. Place the prosciutto on top of the potatoes and place the garlic cloves onto a spare spot on the tray. Cook for a further 5 mins.
5. remove peel from the garlic and cut into small pieces.
6. Lay the spinach leaves onto a dinner plate, add the pecans and barley. Place the sweet potatoes on top and top with the crispy prosciutto and roasted garlic.
6. Spoon the left over oil and honey mixture over the salad.
7. Crumble a little feta cheese over the whole salad.
8. Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar if wanted.
Eat!
