3 Salad beasts

What I like about salads is that its quick, fresh, clean, tasty, simple, one-pot meal, minimal clean-up, and great for "operation: clean out the fridge" days. I had an old Japanese sweet potato and a block of firm tofu waiting to be used. I've always been baking my sweet potatoes whole and I was ready for a change; sweet potato wedges it was. For the tofu, I went with a simple soy sauce/cider marinade, which sounds horribly wrong but fear not, it's pretty tasty in fact. In addition, I've been wanting to experiment with roasted chickpeas after reading some recipes online and I bought a can last weekend. With these ingredients in hand, I present two yummy salads, suitable for all occasions, any time, any day and any where.

Sassy Sweet Potato & Tofu Salad Yield: 1 salad Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato, chopped into wedges (I used the Japanese variety which has purple skin and cream-colored flesh)
• Seasoning for sweet potato: paprika, cumin, white pepper, cinnamon, oregano, extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 block firm tofu, cubed
• Marinade for tofu: 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 ripe avocado, cubed
• Handful of lettuce leaves, chopped
• 1 tbsp pumpkin & almond chutney (Pert's Pantry)
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
• Drizzle of raspberry balsamic vinegar (vom Fass)

Directions

1. Place tofu cubes in soy sauce/cider marinade and let sit for at least 3 h. Feel free to use your own marinade for the tofu. It's versatile!
2. Preheat oven to 190 C.
3. Mix chopped sweet potato wedges with the seasoning. Arrange sweet potato wedges and marinated tofu cubes on a lined baking tray. Bake tofu for 20 min and wedges for 40 min, turning halfway through for each. (I cooked the tofu and sweet potato together to save time.)
4. Once the tofu and sweet potato wedges are done, remove from oven and let cool, then mix with remaining ingredients.
5. Enjoy!

The sweet potato was just marvelous - crispy outsides (a wee bit tough but I shall overlook that) yielded to pillowy pockets of caramelized sugars. I devoured the entire sweet potato, skins and all! I didn't expect much from the tofu but the apple cider taste was surprisingly detectable, lending it a sweet edge. Fancy chickpeas instead? Try this out then!

Chickass Chickpea & Tofu Salad Yield: 1 salad Ingredients

• 1/3 can chickpeas
• Seasoning for roasted chickpeas: paprika, cumin, white pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, oregano, extra virgin olive oil (it's almost identical to the seasoning for the sweet potato just 'cause I love this combination so much!)
• 1/2 block firm tofu, cubed
• Marinade for tofu: 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp frozen veggie mix (peas, carrots, corn, green beans)
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 ripe avocado, cubed
• Handful of lettuce leaves, chopped
• 1 tbsp pumpkin & almond chutney (Pert's Pantry)
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds

Directions

1. Prepare the tofu as above.
2. Preheat oven to 190 C.
3. Drain the can of chickpeas and rinse thoroughly. Peel off the skins if desired (I did but I'm not sure how leaving the skins on will affect the roasting time and cooking of the chickpeas). Pat dry thoroughly with kitchen papers.
4. Place chickpeas in lined baking tray and roast (without seasoning) for 20 mins. Remove from oven, shake thoroughly, add seasoning, then continue to roast for another 10-15 min. (I'm not sure why the seasoning is added only at the end and not before but most recipes seem to add it only at the end)
5. Mix chickpeas with remaining ingredients and enjoy!

I'm not sure if I did the roasted chickpeas correctly. It was hard but not crunchy like kacang puteh, the local version of popcorn. Perhaps the roasting time was too long? I will have to experiment with that. Otherwise, this was a well-textured and well-flavored beast of a salad. The pumpkin & almond chutney from Pert's Pantry knocks my socks off!