Winter Warmer Salad by Rose Spencer-Silver
A salad. Probably the last thing that you want to sit down to after a long day trudging around the Main Library. But you will take those words back after trying my Winter Warmer salad which has already won over most of my friends. It is the perfect comfort meal: you can chuck it into the oven while you take a shower after a long day, and it still manages to be delicious, healthy and easy!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Two large sweet potatoes
One head of broccoli
One jar of chickpeas
Two red onions (optional)
Large bag of kale
Goats cheese or / Halloumi / feta / chicken
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder
Paprika
Honey
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line a large flat baking tray with baking paper.
- Wash, peel and cube the sweet potatoes into small cubes.
- Wash the broccoli and chop the heads off. Add into a large bowl with the sweet potato cubes.
- Drain the chickpeas and add into the same bowl.
- Peel the red onions (optional but very tasty) and quarter them. Add to the bowl.
- Dowse the vegetables in some olive oil and add a squeeze of honey along with the sea salt, black pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Thoroughly toss to make sure that they all get coated in the seasoning.
- Add to the baking tray and cook them for 35-45 minutes (depending on how hot your oven gets).
- After they have been in the oven for roughly 30 minutes, toss the kale in some olive oil and add to a separate baking tray (or the same if you have space) and cook for the remaining 5-10 minutes. Beware that the oven will be very hot at this point and, as kale cooks very quickly, it will not need long to crisp up.
- Once the kale is crispy and the sweet potatoes are soft, serve hot in bowls with rounds of goat’s cheese on top. This will melt into the salad and give it a beautiful flavour. Bon appetit!
Image by Rose Spencer-Silver for The Student
“Ugly but good” Roasted Broccoli and Chickpea Salad with a Tahini-Parmesan Dressing by Maddie Everett-Heath
This salad is really not the most beautiful Helen-of-Troyesque meal, but it is very tasty, if I do say so myself. You can basically eat it year round and it works as a warm, comforting salad if you mix everything together post-roasting, or you can let it completely cool and it works as a refreshing, filling meal. The tahini dressing is rich and creamy, the parmesan rounds out the flavour and the lemon juice adds a brightness to it. This recipe makes four portions and is perfect if you want to meal prep for the week!
Ingredients:
2 large heads of broccoli (about 1kg overall)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 can chickpeas (drained weight 240g)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
1 tsp paprika
60g tahini
20g parmesan
1 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
Juice of a large lemon
2 garlic cloves
5-6 tbsp water
50g sultanas (you can use chopped dates if you prefer)
40g walnuts
10g coriander
Half a large red onion
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 220 degrees fan. Chop up your broccoli florets into smallish pieces and then (because food waste is for losers) grab a vegetable peeler and peel the remaining broccoli stem. In the interests of not slicing off your fingers, when it gets too difficult to peel, chop up the final bits into small slices. Chuck all of this onto a sheet pan (you will probably need two), add 2 tbsp olive oil, the garlic powder, the oregano and season generously, then get your hands stuck in and shake it around to coat everything evenly. Put it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, but halfway through give it a little check and toss.
- Grab the can of chickpeas. Drain them, rinse them with water, and then dab them dry with a kitchen towel. Then pop them on another sheet pan and chuck them in the oven with the broccoli for about 10 minutes. After that, take them out, add 1 tsp olive oil, the honey and the paprika, (season well, just always season everything well), toss them around to coat evenly and put them back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
- While waiting for these to cook, make the dressing. Grate the parmesan and mince the garlic cloves. Add these to a bowl with the tahini, honey, lemon juice and water. Mix this aggressively with a fork until it becomes nice and smooth, if needed you can always add extra water to loosen it up a bit more.
- Once the broccoli and chickpeas are done roasting, take them out of the oven and leave them to cool down for a little bit. While they are resting, chop up the walnuts and throw them into a dry pan on a low heat to roast them. When they start to brown, turn the heat off, and chuck them into a large bowl. Chop up the coriander and the red onion and pop them into the large bowl too. Then throw in the broccoli and chickpeas, drizzle the dressing over, grab some tongs and toss everything together.
And done! It is not the most gorgeous of meals but it’s pretty damn good and very filling!
Image by Maddie Everett-Heath for The Student
