In an effort to eat healthier, tonight we had a tasty yet healthy salad!

Salad’s aren’t just for summer – this one’s lovely in the autumn as half the ingredients are cooked. It’s a great contrast of hot and cold, and colourful too!

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 2 carrots
• Spinach and rocket leaves
• Handful of cherry tomatoes
• ½ a red pepper
• ½ a yellow pepper
• Taifun Basilico tofu

How to make it…

Peel and chop the sweet potato into bite-size chunks. Peel or wash the carrot and slice it so that the pieces are smaller than the sweet potato chunks (carrot takes longer to cook so this will make sure they’re not done at different times).

While you’re waiting for the sweet potato and carrot to cook, start to assemble your salad. Put a handful of mixed spinach and rocket onto your plates. Spread out so that it’s not all in the middle. Cut your red and yellow peppers into half, chop into bite-size pieces and distribute evenly across the plates. Then cut your cherry tomatoes in half and add those to the plates as well.

Once this is done, remove the basil tofu from its packaging and slice into small pieces. I found you had to slice it both ways or the pieces would have been too big – but of course it’s down to your tastes too!

Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the tofu pieces. Keep turning the pieces over a medium heat so that they change colour and texture but don’t burn.

At this point, check your root vegetables. If a knife goes through easily then they’re done. Drain the water using a colander and place the hot sweet potato pieces around the plates. Then add the tofu.

And that’s it! Quick, easy, and not exactly unhealthy either!

What’s in it for me?

• Sweet potato – complex carbohydrates, dietary fibre and beta-carotene
• Carrot – beta-carotene, antioxidants and minerals
• Spinach – vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium and iron
• Tomatoes – antioxidants, vitamin C
• Red and yellow pepper – antioxidants, vitamin C
• Tofu – great source of protein

Note: I first discovered this basil tofu in the organic supermarkets in Germany, but if you live in the UK you can find it in Waitrose.