Grilled Sweet Potato and Zucchini Salad Recipe
Cookbooks are great resources. But I tend to use them backwards. You know, index first. Like, “Man, I’ve got way too much cabbage, what can I make.” Rather than the traditional method of looking through the book, deciding upon a recipe, and buying the ingredients.
I buy the same list of ingredients each week at the grocery store, barring some exceptional sale. So I often start with the ingredients first rather than the craving and work from there. This process lends itself to two specific results: 1) a helluva lot of substitutions or 2) creativity.
But this specific time, I wasn’t feeling innovative (option 2) and there was only one recipe I could identify in my cookbook collection that called for both the ingredients I was hoping to use. That recipe was Mollie Katzen’s Sweet Potato and Zucchini frittata. It calls for 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and since I’m not on dairy these days, that idea was out.
Insert Google. Another great recipe resource. Unlike cookbooks you love and trust, recipes found on Google may be total flops. However, when you cook frequently you can generally read a recipe and anticipate results pretty accurately. When I spotted this recipe, I knew I loved the ingredients, and I had all of the components on hand. It was great and is great for a summer side dish. I made the recipe vegan by omitting bacon and parmesean cheese, but if that’s your persuasion, be sure to check out the original recipe.
- One Year Ago: Vegan Chicken Patties
- Grilled Sweet Potato and Zucchini Salad (4 servings, adapted from here)
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
- 2 large zucchini, sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch strips
- 1 medium sweet onion, cut in a large dice
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 2 cups of loosely packed baby spinach, chopped
- 3 T red wine vinegar
- 1 T extra-virgin olive oil (may be increased up to 6 T)
- 1 T fresh chopped rosemary
- 1 T chopped fresh oregano
- pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
Heat grill to medium and spray with cooking spray. Place sweet potato rounds over hottest portion of flames and zucchini over more indirect heat. Grill 10-15 minutes until grill marks appear and potato can be pierced with a fork, turning over halfway through the cooking process. (Alternatively, roasting or steaming these vegetables is fine as well). Meanwhile, saute onion stove top until tender and slightly translucent. Thaw corn as direction on package. In a small bowl, whisk together spices and herbs with vinegar and oil. In a large salad bowl, combine freshly washed spinach with corn, using the heat of the thawed corn to wilt the spinach leaves.
Remove vegetables from grill and chop into desired sizes. Add to salad bowl. Pour prepared dressing over salad and toss gently. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving warm or room temperature.
Per serving
Calories 173.1
Total Fat 4.2 g
Total Carbohydrate 33.0 g
Dietary Fiber 5.2 g
Sugars 2.8 g
Protein 3.5 g