Roasted sweet potatoes can often taste a bit flat on their own, even with salt. But a remarkably simple dressing makes them sweeter, tangier, and far more satisfying, turning them into the highlight of any meal.
This dressing is easy to prepare and pairs perfectly with roasted sweet potatoes in a hearty autumnal salad. The salad combines wild rice, rocket, and feta with several other ingredients to create a nutritious and thoroughly enjoyable dish.
An Adapted Recipe with Fresh Herbs and Sausage
The recipe is an adaptation of the original Recipe Tin Eats version, with added fresh herbs and cooked Italian sausage. The sausage brings a more savoury dimension, while the fresh herbs in the dressing add a vibrant, zesty quality.
It serves as an ideal midweek dinner option, or without the sausages it works well as a side dish. Even minus the meat, it stands up brilliantly as a meal in its own right, and tastes just as wonderful as leftovers the following day.
Ingredients and Method
To make this dish, you will need one kg of sweet potatoes diced into cubes, two tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper, 200g of rocket or baby spinach, half a red onion thinly sliced, 90g of crumbled feta cheese, three quarters of a cup of dried cranberries, three quarters of a cup of sliced almonds, two cups of wild rice cooked but still warm, and 500g of Italian sausages cooked and sliced (optional).
For the dressing, combine three tbsp fresh lemon juice, five tbsp olive oil, one and half tbsp honey, one clove of fresh garlic minced, two tsp Dijon mustard, one tbsp each of fresh chopped parsley and basil, and salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat your oven or airfryer to 200C. Toss the sweet potato in two tbsp olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast for 20 minutes. Flip the tray or shake the fryer and roast for a further five minutes until golden at the edges.
Shake all the dressing ingredients together in a jar. Cook the wild rice according to the package instructions. If using the sausage, cook it however you like. Once the rice and sweet potato have cooked, let them cool a little—everything should still be warm but not piping hot. Combine everything in a bowl, pour over the dressing, and toss to combine everything equally.
