Holidays, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian 11 comments

Sweet potato salad with pecan and honey

sweet potato 3

Sweet potato salad is a roasted potatoes with orange zest, honey, cinnamon and nuts –a perfect and super easy Thanksgiving side dish. I have to (really have to) tell you this story.

I am a food blogger and an ardent food lover. So, I cook a lot and shoot some. However, sweets and all those picture pretty blog food items come with a lot of calories.

Also, I was sick with UTI and with my antibiotics, I feel heavily nauseated. So I was eating a lot and different things, which resulted in me gaining a few pounds. Now 110 pounds won’t kill me, as I am 5 feet and 3 inches tall. Nevertheless, I prefer to keep my weight under 105.

So I decided to start a clean and balanced food diet for a month. And within a week, I personally feel a LOT better. My stomach is not bloated and I feel much more energetic.

Here is what I am doing –

Breakfast: 1 whole wheat toast + 1 over easy egg (from work’s café)

Lunch: Homemade chicken wrap with low carb tortilla + 1 cup vanilla almond milk/fruit salads (from work café)

Dinner: Bulgur/Brown Rice and low carb tortilla + 1 cup vegetables + 1 cup lentil/chicken/fish

Snacks: 1 oz. Cheese and 5 crackers

Sweet Addiction: 4 Hershey dark chocolate kisses or 1 block of dark chocolate

Liquid: 3-4 liters of water and 4 cups of green tea.

Exercise (5 days a week) – Elliptical training and/or cycling for 30 minutes, which is equal to 180 calories.

green tea 2

No, I did not lose 3 pounds a week, but my stomach bloating is gone and I feel much more energetic and light. Please don’t follow my diet plans, as everyone is different – so follow your body and make a plan for yourself. My parents never allowed me to do crash dieting and now my husband does not. Plus, it never works for me anyway.

Cleaning, eating and exercising are the only ways I lose weight. I am trying to control my eating out for a month. If eat out, I am going to stick to Sushi for now.

End of story.

sweet potato 4

When I was growing up, I did not eat sweet potatoes much, despite the fact that my mom is an ardent sweet potato lover. She prepares traditional Bengali sweets with them. After coming here, I never dared to buy sweet potatoes until this year. A couple of months ago, I decided to get some from Whole Foods to try. My husband is not a big fan of them, but I loved them.

sweet potato before baking

sweet potato salad 2

Then a few weeks back, I had this dish at Globe Cafe. We (yes, my sweet potato hater husband included) loved this sweet potato salad so much that I asked the head chef for the recipe. I modified the recipe a bit but followed most of it. It’s a perfect dinner side – most importantly, a thanksgiving side.

sweet potato salad

The sweet potato salad called for orange zest and orange juice. I prepared the juice myself, as I am not a big fan of canned juices. It has honey, the tanginess of orange, nutty ness of pecan, and aromatic cinnamon. I can assure you that you’ll love this recipe!

sweet potato salad 3

Don’t forget to take part in the giveaway!

book

Details of the giveaway: How can you win this?

  1. Like my page on Facebook.
  2. Follow me on twitter
  3. Follow me on Pinterest
  4. Comment on my thanksgiving posts

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last day is Nov 26th! It’s limited to US, CAN, AUS, UK.

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree. Have a baking sheet lined with foil to hand. Grease it well with vegetable oil.
  2. In a bowl, add potato pieces, orange zest, orange juice, honey, ground cinnamon, cloves. Stir in order to mix them well.
  3. Add them to the baking sheet and cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender but not too soft.
  4. Take it aside. Sprinkle toasted nut and chill it. Serve it cold.

11 Comments

  1. I only used sweet potato once by mistake – it looks so much like tapioca, so I picked it up and cooked it with some spicy fish curry… Then when I ate it, it was sweet and that was when umma said on the call, u must have taken sweet potatoes! Hehe… the salad looks yummy and that book is something I would love to lay my hands on… 🙂

  2. Dolphia Nandi Arnstein

    Thank you for your generous comment <3

  3. Never tried sweet potato in a salad.Have made a sweet potato curry though.Love the addition of orange and cinnamon.Awesome photography Dolphia 🙂

  4. This recipe sounds like a nice addition to my winter warmer menu for lunch times! I love sweet potato and only recently just started to use it more often in cooking

  5. Dolphia Nandi Arnstein

    Thank you so much 🙂 it was yum!

  6. Dolphia Nandi Arnstein

    Thank you so much 🙂

  7. The salad looks delicious and I love all the ingredients you had used in it.
    I love sweet potatoes anytime. I bake them and add to my salads most of the time. I usually cube them, add pepper flakes, coconut palm sugar, sea salt, parsely , garlic powder and drizzle some olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil and throw it in the grill while I am grilling fish/chicken outdoors during summer. During winter I just line them on a baking sheet and bake it. Its an easy side for me. I make a thanksgiving dessert with most of the ingredients you had used in this salad. I am hoping to post it before thanksgiving.

    BTW, we are almost the same size….same pinch. .. I too do the same when I feel I am gaining, but my Mom never agrees with me losing any weight. She tells me I look unhealthy when I lose.

  8. Dolphia Nandi Arnstein

    Oh my gawd! we have so much similarities :)) I love your version of sweet potato too – have to try that!

  9. Somehow i never tried salad with sweet potato, now i have a prefect recipe to give a try..

  10. This sounds delicious and beautiful photos!

  11. Wow, your photography is just delightful! Loving your recipes and the rest of your blog too – what a treat!
    Also, just letting you know that I have nominated you for a Liebster Award :)… Would love if you would accept and take part if you haven’t already…here’s the link http://thetilbatree.com/2016/01/25/the-tilba-tree-lands-a-liebster-award/