Kale and Sweet Potato Salad

Remember how I went through a phase of throwing everything together in a quinoa bowl? No? Well, I do! I was reminded of that habit while making this salad because I turned the salad into a wrap situation at times so it was like "whatever I can put in a quinoa bowl, I can also put into a wrap" epiphany.

As I've mentioned before, the dressing of the salads is not exactly my forte. Clearly I'm more attune to the ways of muffins and sugar and butter and not this green leafy stuff. But maybe, just maybe if I add enough other things to the mix, it will be okay.

 We're roasting sweet potatoes, carrots and chickpeas so we have a good mix of veggies for our salad. Although salads are usually cold, I actually enjoyed this with the warm vegetables. It also softens the cheese but more on that later. The vegetables are coated in olive oil and dusted with pepper before roasting to perfection. The same bowl is used to toss kale with some scallions and parsley to get a light coating of olive oil. Another dash of oil might be needed and then lemon juice. Quinoa is also cooking while all this dressing is happening.

In the end, the quinoa, cooked vegetables and some feta cheese are all mixed together with the kale. We have a nice balance of health here with the healthy grains, leafy greens and colorful veggies. At first, I ate this straight up and later decided it would make a good wrap filling so made some of those too. I even added some chicken to one variation and scrambled eggs to another, so many choices!

This is super easy to make-ahead of time so you have lunch for the week. It makes a good amount, probably 6-7 servings and you can double up on that salad dosage if you'd like.

Recipe

• 4 cups of baby kale
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 scallion stalks, chopped
• 3 Tablespoons parsley, chopped
• 1 cup quinoa, cooked
• Feta cheese to serve
• Olive oil for roasting veggies and dressing
• Lemon juice for dressing
• Pepper for seasoning 

1. Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, toss chopped sweet potato, carrots and chickpeas in some olive oil and pepper.
2. Spread the vegetables across a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Roast until the carrots and sweet potatoes are soft.
3. Meanwhile, cook 1 cup of quinoa according to instructions (basically 1:2 ratio of quinoa to water).
4. In the same large bowl, combine the baby kale, chopped scallions and parsley. Toss to combine and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
5.  Once the quinoa and vegetables are cooked, toss together with the greens and top with feta.
6. Serve in a bowl or add to a wrap. You can add some chicken or eggs to make it a breakfast burrito (highly recommended).