Purple carrots!
I made a bit of a scene last week in the Food Lover’s Market downtown Stellenbosch when my boyfriend found purple carrots. With a pleased grin on his face, he called me over to see what he had found, knowing I would be over the moon. Later, I was only too happy to tell the check-out lady what they were when she gave the carrots a quizzical stare. Maybe I’m the only person who gets excited about vegetables but, hey, who can resist purple carrots?!
Roasted Sweet Potato, Purple Carrot and Kale Salad
Serves two hungry athletes as a main.
Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
4 medium purple carrots
8 medium leaves of kale (approximately)
1 can of chickpeas
1 tbs brown sugar
olive oil
1/4 large avocado
2 rounds of feta
1-2 tbs raw cashews (optional)
mixed seeds (flax, sesame, chia, pumpkin, sunflower)
Directions
Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
Wash carrots and sweet potato. Cut sweet potato into bite-size chunks. Toss with olive oil and roast for 30-40.
Sweet potatoes ready for the oven.
While sweet potato is in the oven, cut carrots into sticks. Set aside.
Drain and rinse chickpeas. Set aside.
When the potatoes are half done, approximately 20 minutes, add carrots and chickpeas to tray. Sprinkle carrot mixture with brown sugar and add extra olive oil if needed. Mix all together and return to oven to roast.
While the carrot mixture is in the oven, wash and trim the kale, tearing the leaf away from the centre spine. Tear into bite-size pieces and discard the “stems.”
Tear the leaf away from the centre line.
When the carrots are cooked (soft but still crunchy), remove tray and place the kale on top. Return to oven for approximately 5 minutes, or until edges of kale begin to turn brown.
Ready for the oven.
While the kale is warming, cut the avocado into chunks or slivers.
Remove tray from oven. The kale on top should be lightly crisp, while the kale on the bottom will be warm and slightly wilted.
To assemble each bowl: Make a “bed” of kale in each bowl and top with sweet potato, purple carrots and chickpeas. Crumble feta over top and add avocado. Sprinkle with cashews and seeds. Serve immediately.
Notes:
Substitute purple carrots for any other type of carrot.
Substitute sweet potato for yams.
Substitute kale for spinach but leave it raw.
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