Sweet potato, pecan and herb salad

I thought by loading up on this on Sunday I could keep away an incoming cold, it's full of orange juice and lemon juice and ginger and herbs and nuts and vegetables... But no it didn't work and I'm fully struck down by the cold. It still tasted nice though...

It is a bit of a flavour explosion salad, in a good way though. The dressing is the key component, it is sweet but spicy with ginger, sharp lemon, silky honey and sweet sherry vinegar. It's an Ottolenghi recipe, a lot of their recipes are very full on flavours so you have to be careful what you serve them with, as it can all become a bit too much sometimes if you put a few of their salads together.

Chop the sweet potato into 2cm cubes, with the skin still on. Drizzle over a glug of olive oil and some salt and pepper and mix it all up so that they are covered evenly with oil.

Put them in the oven at 190 C for 30-40 minutes to roast. Check them once about half way through, turning them over gently. At the same time put 35g of pecan nuts onto a roasting tray and toast them in the oven for 4-5 minutes, be careful to watch them as they burn quite quickly. Leave them to cool when they are done.

While the roasting is going on you can make the dressing. Use a medium sized bowl, there is quite a lot of dressing. Pour in 4 tbsps of olive oil, about 60ml. Add 2 tbsps of clear honey, the recipe actually asks for maple syrup, but I have preferred it when I've used honey in the past. Add 1 tbsp of squeezed lemon juice, 1 tbsp of sherry vinegar and 2 tbsp of squeezed orange juice.

Whisk these all together. Finally add 2 tsps of grated ginger and a quarter of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. It seems like quite a lot of dressing, but the roasted potatoes will soak it up while they are still warm.

Chop up 4 spring onions and the toasted pecans, not too fine for either of them, the crunchy bits of nuts with the soft potato is really good.

Now chop 4 tbsp of flat leaf parsley and 2 tbsp of coriander. I just ordered my herb seeds today, so hopefully will be able to grow enough to keep me supplied over the summer. I think it might be a hard job though as things like this would wipe out an entire plant...

Add everything into a big bowl. The herbs, spring onions, chopped pecans, a good pinch of chilli flakes, 35g of sultanas and the still warm sweet potatoes. Mix it all together.

Finally pour over the dressing and stir it though all of the ingredients. The potatoes will soak it up as they are still warm. Serve it at room temperature.