That whole gut makeover month really reignited a love of blue cheese for me. And wholesome, hearty salads like this one. Golden chicken breast? Yes please! With sticky sweet potato and all the bitter leaves… yum! All finished with creamy blue cheese that melts onto the warm chicken and vegetables. Now we’re really talking.

I could pretty much leave this recipe post at that description and just get into the directions… but I’ll give you a few more hints and tips fist. This salad is good with pretty much any kind of roast root vegetable. Roasted beets, celeriac and carrots are really delicious together. And the mor eyou can mix it up the better for your gut health.

Oh and I forgot to mention the other excellent thing about this salad. Pomegranate molasses pecan. Yep. They’re the perfect tangy sweet, nutty crunchy against the salty and creamy blue cheese.

You can prep this salad at the start of the week and have it for lunches. Just multiply the ingredients by whatever you need.

The sumac in this gives a lovely acidic lemony flavour – if you can’t find it just use more lemon zest in your dressing.

The ingredients list is sort of long on this one, but that always happens when I’m building a delicious salad because I’m terrible at self editing. it’s good this way though, just trust me 😉

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 chicken breast

1 clove garlic

1 Tbs roughly chopped rosemary

1 Tbs olive oil

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 tsp sumac

1 sweet potato, roughly chopped into 2 cm dice

1 carrot, roughly chopped into 2 cm dice

3 cups mixed lettuce lives (including bitter things like radicchio and rocket)

1 zucchini, cut into thin ribbons

3 Tbs Pomegranate seeds

1/4 cup pecans

1 tsp pomegranate molasses

2 Tbs blue cheese

2 Tbs mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flaxseed etc)

Dressing

1 tsp pomegranate molasses

2 Tbs lemon Juice

1 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp lemon zest

salt to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a baking tray. Toss the sweet potato and carrot with 1/2 the sumac and 1/2 the olive oil and spread on the tray. Roast for 40 minutes or until soft and golden.

Toss chicken breast in garlic, rosemary, remaining olive oil, salt, pepper and remaining sumac and set aside for 15 minutes to marinate.

Meanwhile, toss pecans in 1 tsp of the molasses. Roast in the oven, along side the vegetables for 10-15 minutes. Set aside to cool and then roughly chop.

Heat a pan on medium high heat. Once hot, cook chicken breast for approximately 7 minutes each side it should be golden. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes before slicing into 1cm thick slices.

Combine dressing ingredients in a small jar or bowl and shake/mix well. Toss lettuce leaves with 1 tablespoon of dressing.

Arrange lettuce in bowls and top with ribboned zucchini, roast vegetables and chicken. Drizzle over the remaining dressing and sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds, mixed seeds and toasted pecans. Crumble over the cheese. Dig in.

HH. x