Sweet Potato Salad with Goats' Cheese

I'm not a big salad person. As a side with pizza or lasagne, yes. But as a meal? What about carbohydrates?!

Still, there's something to be said for the ease at which a salad can be thrown together - and recently most of my lunches have consisted of lettuce, cucumber, beetroot and coleslaw with some ham. It's different from a sandwich (which I eat four or five times a week during term time) and makes a nice change!

I love looking at salad recipes but I rarely make them (as happens with most things pinned on my Pinterest boards). However, when I saw Katy's lovely looking recipe with roasted squash and sweet potato, cheese and courgette, it sounded right up my street. I'm a big fan of roasted vegetables (see roasted vegetable summer pasta and stuffed squash) and what savoury meal can't be made better with a sprinkling of cheese? 

I varied the recipe slightly according to what we had in the house. Chickpeas for extra protein, goats'  cheese instead of feta (come on, it's goats' cheese!), omitting the squash because we didn't buy one during the week... the beauty of savoury cooking as opposed to baking is that it is possible to fiddle around with ingredients  so that you end up with a recipe that is perfect for you - not for anyone else. 

Have you cooked anything 'experimental' recently? I'd love to know!

Warm Sweet Potato Salad (serves 1)
1/2 - 1 sweet potato
handful chickpeas 
goats' cheese, chopped
balsamic vinegar
1/2 courgette
flavourless oil e.g vegetable
salt and pepper

*I added in half a yellow pepper because it needed using up. *

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Cut the sweet potato into chunks, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for twenty minutes or until soft.

2. Grate the courgette into a bowl. Add in the cooked sweet potato, chickpeas and goats' cheese. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and tuck in!