Roasted Sweet Potato Chickpea Salad with Apple & Feta

Haven't you heard? It's Fiber February, which means I'll be sharing a new fiber-based series for the next five days for you to enjoy. As your favorite gut health dietitian, I wanted to brainstorm a series that not only provides you with fiber-based recipes, but recipes that are approachable and easy to make.

Quick educational recap: Fiber comes our plant-based sources of foods, our fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts/seeds. Our bodies do not digest fiber, so when fiber reaches the colon undigested, the trillions of bacteria that live in our gut microbiome will ferment the fiber and produce compounds called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These play a key part in our gut health, but also our overall health and well being. SCFAs have a role in our immunity, inflammatory responses, and digestive health. Beyond our gut health, fiber helps support regularity (aka making sure you're going) and promotes satiety, ensuring you stay fuller for longer.

So, for this Fiber February, I created my new series called, "Five Fibers, One Dinner". Since there are five different categories of fiber --

1. Fruits

2. Vegetables

3. Legumes

4. Whole grains

5. Nuts/seeds

I wanted to create five dinners that each contain all five fiber groups. For the next five days, you'll be provided a new dinner recipe that contains a fruit source, a vegetable source, a grain source, a legume source, and either a nut or seed. Of course I'm also focusing on other macronutrients, such as healthy fats and protein, to ensure you have a fully balanced meal. Oh, and let me not forget to mention that each day will be completely different sources of fiber, there will be no repeats! By Friday, you will have obtained 5 new dinner recipes and almost 32 different sources of fiber.

This is my way of teaching you that incorporating a diverse range of fiber within your day to day is possible. I want to teach you how to be more intentional about building balanced meals and being aware of the fact that all of these plant sources provide your body with more health benefits than you realize. Let's get more creative in the kitchen, shall we?

Our 3rd recipe of this five-day series: Roasted Sweet Potato Chickpea Salad with Apple & Feta

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I must be honest with you, as I always am. This recipe was not supposed to be a part of this series. My Roasted Sweet Potato Chickpea Salad with Apple & Feta was supposed to be posted next week. However, when I filmed the third recipe in the series, I truly did not like it. I'm not one to half-a** anything. So, this is a delicious new recipe I'm giving you that coincidentally fits the criteria of this series. The fruit source -- apples. The vegetable source -- arugula, avocado, and sweet potato. The legume -- chickpeas. The nut/seed source -- cashews. The only category missing is the grain, so I am going to leave it up to you to get creative in the kitchen.

This Roasted Sweet Potato Chickpea Salad with Apple & Feta is my take on the Sweetgreen Harvest Bowl. It's the ultimate salad to make when you're craving a blend of fall flavors, crunch, savoriness, and sweetness. As always, please feel free to make this recipe, yours. If you're a vegetarian, switch the chicken out for tofu or tempeh. If you're a pescatarian, salmon would be delicious here. If you're dairy free, the feta is not necessary.

Is this a meal preppable recipe? I would say some parts of it are. If you ever see avocado, a fresh dressing, or fruit in a recipe, I would leave those parts out because they tend to brown quicker. You can prep the chicken and sweet potato and then use them throughout the week so you can build a fresh Roasted Sweet Potato Chickpea Salad. Let's get to it!

Here are the details:

1. Fruit source: Honey crisp apple

2. Vegetable source(s): Sweet potato, arugula, avocado

3. Legume source: Chickpeas

4. Whole grain source: --

5. Nuts/seeds source: Cashews

Yields: 2

Portion: 2 bowls

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 25-30 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

This recipe is gluten free, and can easily be made dairy free without the addition of the feta.

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Ingredients:

Sweet potato

2 sweet potato, cubed

Salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

Garlic powder, to taste

Chicken breast:

2 chicken breasts

Extra virgin olive oil (or spray)

Salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

Garlic powder, to taste

Lemon pepper, to taste

2 handfuls arugula

1 honeycrisp apple, finely chopped

1 cup Biena Roasted Chickpeas (you can also make your own)

• 1 15oz canned chickpeas, rinsed & drained

• Salt to taste

• 1/4 tsp lemon pepper

• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

• ½ tsp paprika

1 avocado, finely sliced

2 tbsp cashews

2 tbsp crumbled feta

Dressing (for 1 bowl):

2 tbsp honey Dijon mustard

1½ tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt, to taste

Fresh cracked black pepper

1–2 tbsp warm water (to thin, if needed) 

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Instructions:

1. Bake sweet potato and chicken breast: preheat oven to 400. on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, add on sweet potato cubes and chicken breasts. Make sure sweet potato are spaced out to ensure even cooking. Season sweet potato and chicken breasts accordingly -- I hate measuring my seasonings, so season to taste. You don't have to be shy with the garlic powder or lemon pepper! Bake in the oven until chicken breasts are fully white on the inside and sweet potato cubes have softened and browned.

   
   

2. Prep produce: have arugula, apple, avocado, and chickpeas on the side. If you're opting to make the roasted chickpeas, make sure to add them to the sheet pan to bake alongside the chicken and sweet potato. Add seasonings and coat chickpeas evenly. Roast until crispy.

   
   

3. Make dressing: mix together honey dijon mustard, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Mix in warm water if necessary to dilute it. Taste and adjust for salt. Set aside.

   
   

4. Assemble & serve: in a serving bowl, add in arugula. Top with one sliced chicken breast, 1 cup baked sweet potato, ¼-½ cup chopped apple, ½ cup chickpeas, ½ avocado, 1 tbsp cashews, 1 tbsp crumbled feta. Pour on dressing. Mix salad well, taste and adjust for salt. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes:

• Switch protein: Instead of baked chicken, you can opt for more chickpeas or use tofu, salmon, shrimp, steak, or tempeh.

• Dressing swaps: Don't like dijon mustard? Feel free to use a dressing that speaks to you here. You could do a simple lemon vinaigrette or a Greek vinaigrette. Up to you!

• Grain options: Since we don't have our source of whole grain here, you can opt for quinoa, bulgur, farro, or wild rice. Those options would make most sense flavor wise.

• Make it spicy: Add red pepper flakes, chili oil, or a pinch of cayenne if you would like.

• Use a different type of apple: if you don't have honey crisp apples, you can opt for other kinds of apples like macintosh, fuji, or gala.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I did, so if you do, please leave me a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I always read through my suggestions and comments, so please let me know your thoughts. If you have any questions you can feel free to DM me here or through Instagram. Speaking of Instagram - please tag me in all of your creations! I love seeing how the recipes come out and seeing how talented you all are. Sending my love.

xoxo,

Jasmin D the RD