BLACK BEANS, ROASTED PEPPERS AND CHIMCHURRI DRESSING
Chimichurri, the feisty Argentinean version of pesto, makes a great base for a salad dressing. You’ll have some left over so just keep it in a jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. It’s great poured over pasta, noodles, rice or beans, as here.
2 red-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized cubes
2 red peppers, quartered and seeded
100 g rocket leaves
400 g canned black beans, drained and rinsed
4 tablespoons pumpkin seeds, toasted
Chimichurri dressing
15 g flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
8 g oregano leaves, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, crushed
freshly squeezed juice of 1?2 lemon
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Serves 4
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) Gas 6.
1. Brush the sweet potatoes with olive oil and roast in a roasting pan in the preheated oven for 35–40 minutes, turning once, until tender.
2. Meanwhile, brush both sides of the red peppers with olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet. Roast for 35 minutes, turning once, or until tender and blackened in places. Put the peppers in a bowl and cover with clingfilm; this will make them easier to peel.
3. While the sweet potatoes and peppers are roasting, make the chimichurri dressing. Put the parsley, oregano, garlic, lemon juice, chilli and olive oil in a food processor or blender, season, and process until coarsely chopped. (The mixture can also be chopped by hand.) Set aside.
4. Peel off the skin of the peppers and cut into bite-sized pieces. Arrange the rocket leaves on 4 serving plates and top with the sweet potatoes, black beans and red pepper. Spoon enough of the dressing over the salad to lightly coat it and sprinkle the pumpkin seeds on top before serving.
Pumpkin seeds
Toasting gives nutritious pumpkin seeds a lovely nutty flavour and crunchy texture. Small quantities of seeds can be toasted in a large, dry frying pan/skillet, tossing them occasionally until they start to colour, but take care as they can pop out of or splutter in the pan as they heat up.
The Salad Bowl by Nicola Graimes, photography by Matt Russell, is published by Ryland Peters & Small
