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Sweet Potato Salad (awesome and vegan!)

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Perfect Roasted Sweet Potatoeshow to roast sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are somewhat of a superfood.  In my house we eat them several times a month.  They are very versatile–I put them in soups, stir fry and muffins.  I think sweet potatoes are fun and healthy alternative to boring white potatoes.  So simple to make heat oven to 400, cook for 30 minutes or until they are the firmness you desire for your recipe, EAT, feel amazing and healthy!

Roasted Walnuts

For quick reference I made a 15 second instagram video roasting walnuts.  You can watch it here.  (and you can follow me on Instagram for my online healthy food journal).  The trick is to keep the nuts moving in the pan–all nuts have a high fat content and will burn in a heartbeat if you aren’t  watching them.

Wheatberries

Cooking wheat berries can be a little tricky.  Again, I posted on Instagram how I wash the berries before I cooked them.  My first attempt was on the stove . . . where I burnt them!  My squirrels wouldn’t even eat them!  That is when I know my cooking has it an all time low!  Or maybe my squirrels have just become accustomed to finer dining at the Baude fence.  Either way–it was bad.

My second attempt at stove top wheat berries was better but the consistency just wasn’t what I wanted.  Ok, so I’m probably a little picky about the exact texture of my wheat berries but still . . . FAIL.

The final and third attempt worked.  Seriously, if I didn’t get it right this time–I just wasn’t really interested in moving forward with this recipe.  I love wheat berries–so the thought of ditching the project was sad for me.  The thought of paying deli prices for wheat berries was even SADDER.  

You can imagine how excited I was to open my rice cooker and taste perfectly cooked wheat berries.  

It was short lived.  Do you think I actually wrote down how much water I used and how many cups of wheat berries?  Another fail but I do remember thinking, “I’ll use the same ratio as what is on the bag.” and since that was my last thought . . . I’m going with it.  I used a 2:1 ratio of water to wheat berries!  

Again–I posted a quick photo on Instagram.

Chopped Kale sweetpotatoingredientlist

This past weekend I went to a Engine 2 Retreat.  Kale was at every meal!  I must admit that I haven’t mastered the cooking of kale.  I know that I like the Lacinto Kale best but I never really think about how to cook the kale.  It just seems to cook in the rice or cook in the sweet potato . . . I never cooked JUST kale.  The recipe is easy–boil the kale for 5 minutes.  I thought–BOIL?  I can’t possibly boil it.  But tonight I did.  I boiled my kale for 5 minutes and . . . it was perfect.  I cooked up 3 bunches, enough for tomorrows meals.  

In this recipe I just chopped raw kale.  I’m sure the vinaigrette broke down the cellulose in the kale making it simply wonderful.  When I make it in the future I will use the cooked kale–I think it has a nicer bite when it is cooked.

Walnut Fig Vinaigrette 

I love a great vinaigrette!  You can go to this post to find out how I make it!

[Tweet “I just found an awesome Sweet Potato Salad printable recipe at Renee’s Kitchen. “]

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This recipe was a huge hit at the “End of the Season” soccer pot luck parties.  I love sharing plant based, nutritious, super yummy and filling recipes to the parties.  I will admit I was surprised by how many people willingly tried some without my prompting.  I didn’t say it was vegan, they didn’t ask and I’m not sure they even know that I’m a food writer!  Lynn does but for that party I made cake–not vegan but so yummy.

If you try this recipe please leave a note for me in the comments or send me an email.  I’d love to hear your feedback.

Be Blessed. 

Related articles

Vegan Crockpot Sweet Potatoes

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I love sweet potatoes!  
IMG_3594

I love the color–I painted my previous kitchen the color of sweet potatoes–a rich, warm, earthy tone.  I love how the plant grows into a flowing vine.  I’ve written about growing sweet potatoes.  I love the texture and versitility, here is my awesome sweet potato muffin recipe!  (you can usually substitute sweet potato in a recipe that calls for pumpkin–a healthy switch.)

 

Crock Pot, Bake, Roast 

This particular recipe I used the crockpot primarily because it didn’t matter how much the sweet potatoes cooked and I needed the oven for other baking.  If they were undercooked I could add more time and if they were a little mushy than I had less to do when I mashed them.  How I cook the sweet potatoes depends on how I want to serve them:

Roasted:  for my incredible roasted sweet potato summer salad!  I took pictures and put it on Instagram and it is on my FB Renee’s Kitchen Page.  (I post my life in food . . . )

Baked:  I bake my sweet potatoes wit the skin on then I usually stuff them.  This is a fun recipe/video that shows how I did it.

Boiled:  my least favorite way to cook but it is quick.  In my opinion when I boil sweet potatoes the depth of the flavor is lost. 

 Nutrition InfoIMG_3595

I searched the web and found this great website for nutritional values.  Here is the sweet potato nutritional information.  What I really like about this site is the visuals–I can see at a glance a wide variety of values.

 

 

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We eat sweet potatoes just as a side dish.  But you could:IMG_3593

  • add a little broth to make a sauce
  • add beans and make potato pancakes
  • use for ravioli filling
  • layer with regular mashed potatoes–it looks really pretty in a glass pan
  • thicken red sauce or chili
  • use as a dip with pita chips

11 more ideas!

Check out this post on 11 ways to prepare sweet potatoes!  

An old wives tale is that sweet potatoes increase fertility . . .

you do with that info what you want!  (and that is eating the sweet potatoes not wearing them or rubbing mashes sweet potatoes on your body . . . although they are so high in Vitamin A–it might make your skin look great.)

Be Blessed.IMG_3596

L.O.V.E.,

Renee

Clean 15 Food List

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Hey Food Friends!

Last week I posted the dirty dozen food list–it included foods that are best purchased organic vs. conventional.  I also mentioned how I manage to remember a list of 12 things in addition to the 5 million other things I’m trying to remember.  I had a great memory until my 4th kid!

[Tweet “Did motherhood steal your ability to remember?”]

Clean 15 Food List

clean15list

These fifteen foods have the LEAST amount of pesticide contamination–so if you can’t always afford organic produce–these are the 15 foods to buy conventional.

  1. Onions
  2. Pineapple
  3. Avocado
  4. Cabbage
  5. Sweet Peas-frozen
  6. Papaya
  7. Mangos
  8. Asparagus
  9. Eggplant
  10. Kiwi
  11. Grapefruit
  12. Cantaloupe
  13. Sweet Potato
  14. Mushrooms
  15. Sweet Corn

Now . . . again–I can’t remember all of this so I only remember the things that I actually like to eat and cook for my family–I eat Sweet Potatoes all the time and love to write about them!  Sweet potatoes I will remember!  I’ve been craving grapefruit each morning lately–so I’ll stop buying that organic!  Cha Ching!  We do eat huge amounts of mushrooms, avocados, asparagus, pineapple and onions–now I will price check and quality check my produce in new way!  

What did I just learn?

(yes, I love writing this blog because I love asking questions and finding answers!)  I just learned that I can skip the organic grapefruit, pineapple and asparagus.  I do buy organic if the price is close–just to support the farmers–a struggle with the balance of being sensible/prudent with my overall health goals.  I will buy organic if I think the flavor is better or if I have figured out that the pesticides are causing rashes–like strawberries.  Only organic or nothing (for strawberries)–it just isn’t worth it.  

I’d love to know if you follow the Dirty Dozen or the Clean Fifteen guidelines?  or not?  

L.O.V.E.,

Renee