Sweet Potato and Chicken Salad

Salad dressing can sometimes be a little problematic, in that it has an irritating tendency to obey the laws of gravity and sink to the bowels of one’s salad bowl. Allowing a well-made dressing to miss out on even a moment’s culinary action is, in my book, indefensible. Happily, chicken and sweet potato act as an edible sponge for superfluous juices and do a great job of mopping up recalcitrant drizzle. It pains me to describe a dish a ‘well-integrated’, but with every ingredient cooperating with one another on myriad different levels, it’s hard not to.

Though you (hopefully) remain subscribed to frugalfeeding, you may have discerned that I have finally leaped from the confines of wordpress.com into the open arms of wordpress.org. Though things may not look much different yet (give me time), this marks a new chapter in my career as a food blogger. So, join me in my celebrations and enjoy as much cake as is legal in your respective countries.

Local connection: Buying pre-butchered chicken is such an expensive way to eat poultry. Instead, why not purchase a free-range, ethically and sustainably sourced whole bird, roast it and make use of its meat over several days? Last week, we purchased a 1.6kg bird for around £10.50 from Source, Bristol. From it we expect to get seven meals for two (including stock made from the carcass and giblets). This approach really needs to catch on, especially since brown meat is by far the nicest!

Sweet Potato and Chicken Salad {recipe}

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes, cubed

• 150g leftover chicken, strips of

• 2 large handfuls of rocket leaves

• 1 red chilli, finely sliced

• 4 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil

• Juice of half a lemon

• A pinch of salt and pepper

Method:

1. Pop your sweet potatoes on a roasting tray, drizzle with oil and roast at 160C for 20-30 minutes, or until soft. Set aside to cool.

2. Beat together the oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Put the rocket, chicken, cooled potato and chilli in a large bowl, drizzle over the vinaigrette and mix thoroughly but gently. Serve immediately, though it will keep in the fridge for a day or two.

Cost: If prepared in the way described above chicken is an impressively frugal resource – the meat used in this dish cost around £1. Of course, sweet potatoes aren’t particularly expensive and neither is rocket. As a result you can expect this lovely salad to set you back around £3.