The cool thing about studying nutrition is that it’s so applicable to daily life and helps me think about balancing the food I eat. For example the fact that eating fats along with the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E & K helps you absorb them better! So having fat in salad dressing is actually doing more than making things taste good, it’s improving the nutritional benefit of those veggies too.
Another dressing thing: If you’re having spinach in a salad, it’s also a great idea to use citrus fruit juice in the dressing. Citrus fruits contain Vitamin C (aka ascorbic acid) which converts non-haem iron (that just means the iron is in a certain form) from the spinach into a form which is more easily absorbed. This is a particularly helpful tip for vegetarians and vegans who miss out on the more easily absorbed form of iron (haem iron) found in red meat.
Basically – salad dressing is COOL, tasty and really good for you. Also yes I am nerding out on facts. Hellooooo impending summer exams.
An instinctual salad hunger has been awoken in me now that it’s finally warm and the evenings are getting lighter. I just want to eat all the pretty, colourful vegetables (with dressing of course!). In particular I’ve been wanting to try a raw sweet potato salad since I saw Laura post a recipe for one a few weeks ago. Once I saw a cooked, spiralised sweet potato dish in Alessandra’s new cookbook* and it gave me the kick I needed to get salad-ing! Instead of spiralising the sweet potato I just cut it into matchsticks and I didn’t saute the sweet potato as the original recipe instructed. It was the perfect light lunch and also made a GREAT veggie burger add-in for dinner that night. Don’t be afraid of the raw sweet potato – it’s pretty neutral in flavour and slightly crunchy.
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 1 red onion or shallot , , thinly sliced
- 1 clove of garlic , , roughly chopped
- juice of 1 lime
- thumb-sized piece of ginger , , grated
- 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) light tahini
- 1 tbsp raw sugar/coconut sugar/maple syrup
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce , , tamari or coconut aminos (make sure it's GF if needed)
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
Salad:
- 1 medium sweet potato , (or ~1 1/2 small ones), peeled
- 1 courgette , (zucchini), peeled into ribbons
- 1 large carrot , , peeled into ribbons
- 1 red chicory , (radicchio), finely shredded (or you can use 1/4 head of red cabbage)
- handful of mangetout/sugar snap peas , , sliced
- 1 spring onion , , finely sliced
- 1/2 a large bunch of coriander , , finely chopped (stems & leaves)
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds , (toast them in a dry frying pan over a high heat)
Instructions
Dressing:
- Place the sliced onion and garlic into a bowl with the lime juice. Let it sit for a few minutes.
- Add in the rest of the dressing ingredients and stir well to combine. Set aside while you prep the salad.
Salad:
- Take the peeled sweet potato and slice it into 'planks' about 2mm thick. Stack a few planks up and cut them into matchsticks. Repeat with the rest of the planks until you've got a LOAD of sweet potato matchsticks. (If you have a spiraliser you can also just use that to turn the sweet potato into noodles).
- Place the sweet potato matchsticks, courgette ribbons, carrot ribbons, shredded chicory, sliced mangetout, spring onion & most of the coriander into a large bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss the salad together with your hands, slightly massaging it into everything.
- Top the salad with the rest of the coriander and the toasted sesame seeds (and extra spring onion if you want).
Notes
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I didn’t know you’re studying nutrition! 😀 That’s awesome, like this salad, omg *____*
Tried the recipe and loved the salad! Thanks!
i love sweet potato! x
jess x | wellwellgirls.blogspot.com
As a former nurse and a flexitarian I really loved reading how to improve the nutritional value of the veggies with the dressing. Thank you so much. I hope you will continue to pass this kind of information along to your readers when you have time. Good luck with your exams!!
This looks so fresh! Tahini and sweet potatoes is killer combination! 🙂
Hi Izy. I like the look of this. Any danger of the sweet potato discolouring?
I had the leftovers in the fridge for a few days and it didn’t discolour 🙂
Me again!. I find that sweet potatoes go black in places when peeled. I have to get them into the pot quickly and sometimes repeel to remove discolouration.
Raw sweet potatoes??? I did hear that it’s quite good for you–raw potato juice to be exact–but I’m so scared about trying to chew it and digest it XD
as it’s julienned into matchsticks it’s already in quite small pieces! But yes I’d say this is a salad that you should chew well to make sure you get lots of nutrients as all the veggies are raw
Raw sweet potatoes?? I’ve heard plenty of benefits of raw sweet potatoes–especially raw potato juice–but I could never imagine trying to consume them! Would it taste like raw cabbage?
This is so gorgeous Izy! Thanks for sharing the nutritional factoids with us too, I’ve been aware of the whole fat-soluble vitamin thing for a while but I’m always looking for new ways to get good fats into salad dressings instead of always relying on avocado or ‘tasty yellow beef’ (*see no evil monkey* soz, couldn’t help myself!). Definitely trying this xx
Im definately adding this one to my ‘must do’ recipes. I sounds so yummy!
Jules.- http://www.thekiwidiaries.com
Delish! Definitely making! Thanks sharing the recipe!
http://www.sistersweetly.wordpress.com
My appetite for salads is back too now that it’s getting warmer here! I like the facts, keep them coming! I just moved from a tropical country to a seasonal country and learning about eating seasonally. I welcome any tips and advice! 🙂