The life of being a food blogger spouse is not easy. People joke about ‘Med School Widows’, but I’m beginning to wonder if Mr. Nomato isn’t a ‘Food Blogger Widow’ instead! He eats all the ugly food, the cast-offs, the rejects, has to deal with my crazy kitchen experiments and reheated picture foods (which he pretends to be happy eating), being ignored while I’m ‘in the zone’… it is not glamorous, especially not lately.
The past couple weeks at home have been completely bananas. We’re trying so hard to see everyone we’ve missed and on top of that, I’m trying to take all the blog pictures for October AND November (that’s more than 20 recipes! Ack!), as well as a couple other recipes for other blogs, get my paperwork in so I can substitute teach again (although it looks like maybe a full-time job might crop up, fingers crossed), and prep for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. Oh, and I’ve got two quilts on the go. Babies wait for no one!
Finding time to squeeze in the cooking and photography has led to some pretty disastrous – and in hindsight funny – kitchen moments. Mr. Nomato, I’m so sorry for yelling at you for turning the lights on in the room while I was trying to photograph. I’m sorry you had to scrape me off the floor when I burned the roasted veggies.
But most of all, I’m sorry for feeding you this salad with cold beans and chickpeas instead of warm ones.
Apparently it was still delicious.
I’m skeptical.
Regardless, this salad is the perfect fall salad.
Bright colours? Check.
Warm? Check.
Delicious? Double Check.
(Also, is there some sort of Prettiest Vegetable contest? Because after this and the egg rolls, my vote is for red cabbage.)
First you need a base of baby spinach (or kale or arugula or whatever leafy green floats your boat! Baby spinach is and always will be my favourite.)
In a pot on the stove, heat your black beans and chickpeas. I didn’t flavour them in any way, but you can if you want. Roast those sweet potatoes with some garlic and olive oil, try not to burn them.
My Oven:
Okay, once you get over all your unusable sweet potatoes and remake them, chop up some cabbage and half of an avocado, and voila!
There’s your salad!
Top with Monday’s Chive and Dill Greek Yogurt Salad Dressing!
It’s a little more hands-on than a lot of salads, but it’s so freaking delicious. And who doesn’t love a warm salad, especially on these chilly days?
Plus it’s vegetarian, and packed with protein to keep you full. Seriously, I couldn’t finish my bowl. Between the avocado and the greek yogurt from the salad dressing, there’s nothing but healthy fats in this baby.
It’s hearty, filling and fresh. And completely drool-worthy.
Especially if you warm up the beans.
- 2 cups loosely packed baby spinach (or kale, arugula, etc.)
- 1 cup black beans
- 1 cup chickpeas
- 1 sweet potato , chopped and roasted or boiled until soft.
- 1 cup red cabbage , chopped
- 1 avocado , cubed
- Topping: Chive and Dill Greek Yogurt Salad Dressing (http://halifaxbloggers.ca/isaynomato/2015/10/19/chive-and-dill-greek-yogurt-salad-dressing/)
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Cube your sweet potato and either roast it in the oven (recipe coming soon!), or boil it until it's soft. These can be pre-made and stored in the fridge, and then reheated as you need them.
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In a pot on the stove, heat black beans and chickpeas, either separately or together. Stir occasionally, should only take about 5 minutes.
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Build your bowls - starting with your spinach, layer warm beans and chickpeas over top, then sweet potatoes, cabbage, and avocado.
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Top with Chive and Dill Greek Yogurt Salad Dressing.
