sweet potato, feta, tomato salad

I was walking through our wonderful Granville Island market yesterday morning for an entirely different purpose than recipe inspiration -and ended up with an idea that I ran with! I had a good feeling when I got a perfect parking spot, and breezed through the errands I had before heading into the market. It was early enough to be mostly locals shopping and vendors still stocking up. There was a warm buzz, but it wasn't elbow-your-way-through busy (particularly good when I was wheeling my stroller around and wanting to be as quick as I could). I picked up some Thai Red Rice (watch out for something using this in the near future) and then walked by one of the wonderful Italian delis there. It was here that I saw it -'it' being the spark of an idea, a delicious looking salad that I've expanded on here. From there I weaved through the weekly farmer's market outside and couldn't take my eyes off the wonderful tomatoes at one of the stalls. I had to get some, but which ones? I decided they had to go with my key salad ingredient, sweet potato, and ended up with the little gems pictured below. Another time I will get some of the vast array of heirloom tomatoes they had - they looked so interesting and I imagine taste fantastic.

So, the two main ingredients are sweet potatoes and little tomatoes - any sort that you can find that are perhaps out of ordinary, but most importantly, packed full of flavour. What I love about these are the different colours - this dish really became about a wonderful variety of colour aside from being really delicious.

Ingredients:

• 10 to 15 tomatoes, any small variety will work
• 1 (large) sweet potato, peeled, then steamed or baked, and chopped
• fresh basil, about 6 medium size leaves, torn or chopped
• 3/4 of a cup (more or less to suit your taste) feta cheese, chopped into cubes/small pieces
• 2 tablespoons/30 ml (approximately) extra virgin olive oil, drizzled over salad
• sea salt, a few pinches
• fresh lemon, about half if it's a really juicy one, squeezed
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) approximately, garlic, chopped

Method:

In the interest of time I steamed the sweet potatoes, but if you have time, bake them - it brings out the best in any vegetable of this sort. Ideally, cook the sweet potato until just slightly soft, you don't want it getting mushy when tossing the salad. Slice and chop the sweet potato into cubes or small pieces and allow to cool. Slice the tomatoes in half, add to the bowl with the sweet potato, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil over and sprinkle some sea salt on top. After a light toss add the chopped feta, basil leaves, garlic, freshly squeezed lemon, and a bit more oil. Toss and serve.

Comments

[Dean]

Love the new tomato salad! Can't wait to try that one!