Brown rice salad with roast sweet potato, chickpeas and pecan nuts

This is a self made salad I have often, usually weekly (fiance won't have any of it, he usually grabs something from the freezer - a bit too healthy maybe?)  I had a salad like this once, years ago, somewhere, and while I was eating it thought "hey I could make this" and promptly went home and did just that, tweaking the ingredients. 



Obviously you could do that here, adding a bit more or less of some ingredients, it's up to you.  Also, for the sake of being thrifty and well organised, I open a whole can of chickpeas; drain, rinse, use what I need and freeze the rest to use for this salad whenever I want it.



No bones about it, this is a rustic, healthy salad.  There isn't anything fancy about it although due to the simplicity of it, I use good quality ingredients.  The nuttiness of the brown rice and chickpeas, tangy dressing, sweetness of the potato, the aromatic toasted nuts and freshness of the herbs go very well together and although I haven't done this, I imagine it could be made the night before and taken to work the next day for a healthy, low GI lunch.
















Recipe:



10ml extra virgin olive oil

150g kumara or orange sweet potato, diced in smallish cubes

20g pecan nuts

40g chickpeas

140g cooked brown rice (a heaped 1/3 cup dry)

20ml wholegrain honey mustard

20ml balsamic vinegar

the green parts of 2 spring onions, finely sliced

a small handful of continental parsley, roughly chopped



About an hour or so (or more if you have it) before you are going to eat the salad, stir the brown rice and chick peas with the herbs, balsamic vinegar and mustard to allow the flavours to develop.



Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F).  Toss sweet potato with the olive oil and roast in oven for around 40 minutes.  For the last 5-7 minutes add the pecan nuts - make sure not to burn them.



Mix the roasted sweet potato and pecan nuts with the brown rice mixture.  If desired, drizzle some more extra virgin olive oil through the salad. 



This salad is best eaten at room temperature.



Serves: 1