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Roasted Sweet Potato, Pear and Pomegranate Spinach Salad

Beautiful and festive roasted sweet-potato, pear and pomegranate spinach salad with creamy goat cheese, toasted pecans and a tangy balsamic dressing! So delicious, healthy and full of flavour Fantastic for the holiday season.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 6
Calories 312kcal
Author Jessica

Ingredients

For the Sweet Potatoes

  • 2 medium sweet-potatoes, cut into ½ cubes (can also use cubed butternut-squash)
  • 1 tbsp brown-sugar (or coconut-sugar or maple-syrup)
  • 1 tbsp melted coconut-oil
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • freshly-ground salt and pepper
  • ¼ tsp cayenne-pepper

For the Pecans

  • ½ cup pencans

For the Salad

  • 6 oz organic-spinach (about 8-10 cups spinach)
  • ¾ cup pomegranate-seeds, from 1 pomegranate
  • ½ cup goat-cheese (or can use feta)
  • 2 medium ripe-bartlett-pears, thinly sliced

For the Dressing

  • 3 tbsp balsamic-vinegar
  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive-oil
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • ½ tsp dijon-mustard
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400F. In a small-bowl, whisk together the coconut-oil, cinnamon, brown-sugar, cayenne and minced garlic. Put the sweet-potatoes on a baking-sheet and then pour mix over the top.
  • Season with pepper and salt and toss well to coat. Roast for 20-30minutes till sweet_potatoes are fork tender, tossing somewhat halfway through. They ought to get a little crisph on the edges.
  • While the sweet-potatoes are cooking, you can toast the pecans on the stovetop: Add pecans into a pan and put over medium-heat, stirring occasionally about 2-5minutes before pecans are aromatic and slightly golden-brown on edges.
  • Remove from heat & transfer to a cutting-board. After a couple of minutes, chop the pecans into large pieces. Put aside.
  • In a small-bowl or mason-jar, then add all the dressing ingredients. Shake or mix well to blend. Taste and add extra salt/pepper, if needed.
  • In a large-bowl, then add the spinach, pomegranate-seeds, pear slices & cooked sweet-potatoes. Top with toasted pecans and goat-cheese.
  • Drizzle with desired amount of dressing, then toss to coat. Add to bowls and serve with additional pecans and goat-cheese, if desired.

Notes

If you're serving this to some gathering, then I suggest layering it onto a platter. First add spinach, sweet-potatoes, pear, pomegranate. Drizzle with dressing, then top with pecans and goat-cheese. Don't toss together.
To make vegan: Leave goat-cheese & use pure maple-syrup from the dressing rather than honey.
To make daily-free: Leave the goat-cheese.