Sweet Potato and Chicory Salad
For this salad, Brian likes to mix the moist, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes—such as Garnet or Jewel—with drier, yellow-fleshed varieties. Ask your produce merchant to point you to the right types if you aren’t sure. After roasting and cubing the sweet potatoes, Brian tosses them with a mix of bitter chicories, a nutty sherry vinaigrette, and fine shavings of sheep’s milk cheese—an inspired marriage of contrasting textures and flavors. Serve with pork chops or a pork roast for a winter dinner.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Pierce the sweet potatoes in several places with a fork, place on a baking sheet, and roast until they are tender when pierced, about 1 hour. Let cool, peel, and cut into 3/4-inch chunks.
Step 2
Cut the radicchio in half, cut away the core, then tear the leaves into bite-size pieces and place in a salad bowl.
Step 3
Trim the core and any dark green outer leaves and leaf tips from the frisée. Tear the pale yellow center leaves into bite-size pieces. Cut the endive crosswise into 1-inch rounds. Add the frisée and endive to the salad bowl and toss to mix.
Step 4
Add enough of the vinaigrette to coat the salad lightly (you may not need it all) and toss well. Add the sweet potatoes and toss again gently. Taste for seasoning. Divide the salad among salad plates. With a vegetable peeler or cheese plane, shave cheese over each portion, dividing it evenly. Serve immediately.
Step 5
Enjoy with Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc or another dry white wine with good acidity.
