Salad recipe, inspired by Sweetgreen’s Harvest Bowl

For the last few months, I have wanted to make a salad inspired by Sweetgreen’s Harvest Bowl. The Harvest Bowl is based on a layer of kale upon which there are quadrants of protein-rich foods like roasted sweet potato and rice, and other toppings like almonds and apples. Together, the salad is both filling and delicious.

Today, after reading Lake Shore Lady’s take on the Harvest Bowl, I decided to make my own.

This is the first salad I have made in a long time, so I didn’t take accurate measurements of each ingredient. Instead, I tried to prepare enough to fill one of my bowls.

Here is what the salad looked like in the end:

The ingredients were:

1. Half a roasted sweet potato (diced).
2. Cooked Balsamic rice.
3. Kale, cooked in a saucepan for five minutes.
4. Walnuts.
5. Goats cheese.
6. Apple, sliced (although diced would work better.)

The rough process I followed was:

1. Peel and chop sweet potato into small, even chunks, then roast in the oven at 200 C for 40 minutes. Check on the potatoes and turn them as needed.
2. Toward the end of the roasting time, 250g of rice. I used a microwave sachet, and ended up using half of it. I had enough left over that I can use in another meal.
3. Prepare enough kale to cover the bottom of your serving bowl. This was ~2-3 handfuls for me. Wash, then cook in a saucepan for 3-5 minutes.
4. When the kale is ready, drain the water and put the kale in a serving bowl.
5. Add the sweet potato chunks, rice, nuts, and apple in their own quadrants.
6. Top with a small amount of goats cheese.

The result: a delicious, filling salad!

Like any salad, the recipe above is open to as much change as you would like. You could remove the nuts, use a different cheese, use a protein other than sweet potato.

One of the big lessons I learned making this salad was not to use too much goats cheese. It is a powerful flavour; you don’t need much. Next time, I should pay more attention to the quantities of ingredients I use too.