I love salads and eat them daily for lunch and sometimes dinner. It’s very satisfying to me and ultra healthy. This salad knocks it out of the park in terms of vitamins and nutrients and the colors are so gorgeous and vibrant – almost too pretty to eat! First, a few tips – choose an organic yam or sweet potato – one that has a deep orange flesh. Under cook it in the microwave or oven until just about soft, but NOT mushy, then you can dice into little bite size chunks. The red onions you want to be cut into the thinnest slivers so use a good chef’s knife. The large chunks of onion you see in the photo are for visual appeal.  Here are the directions.

Start by cutting the red stems off the Swiss Chard. Rinse and dry the leaves completely. These are serving as more of back drop, and are for a visual pop to pull all of your colors together. Feel free to tear some and add to salad as well! Place them inside the bowl as seen in the photo.

Microwave the large sweet potato until soft. Peel off the skin and cut into bite size chunks. Place in a frying pan with olive oil and heat for 10 minutes. You may add some ground sea salt and some dried rosemary or any dried herb you like: dried basil, dried oregano, dried parsley or any combo! Give them a heavy dosing so they are well coated. Set these aside once browned. Do not burn.

Next, rinse the radishes, dry and cut into thin slices. I soak them in the vinaigrette and then drain them. Or you may just salt these. I find radishes to be bland so for this salad I wanted to impart some flavor.

Cut the pomegranate in half, place in a bowl of water. Break it apart and the seeds should sink to the bottom. Drain in colander and pick out any pulp.

Then be sure to choose two ripe avocados, and cut into slivers. Do this last minute right before serving salad, as these tend to brown when exposed to air. Next, Rinse the arugula or baby kale and dry well. I always choose organic greens as I tend to eat salad in bulk. Anything I eat in bulk I buy organic.

Cut the onions into very thin slivers and leave a few wider ones for a nice visual appeal – placing the larger ones on the top of salad.

Now assemble your salad

Start by adding in the arugula or kale or a combo of the two on top of the Swiss Chard inside the bowl. Then add in the thin slivers of red onion and mix with greens. Then add in the cooled sweet potatoes. Next, add in a handful of cranraisins and handful pumpkin seeds -both dispersed evenly amidst the salad. Next, add in the radishes, I placed them in two clusters inside the bowl versus mixing with salad.  Add the avocado slices along the side as seen in this photo. Sprinkle some pom seeds all around for added color, texture and nutrients.

Serve with your fave vinaigrette and add some pom juice, along with some seeds and place in a clear mason jar. We added it to each salad versus tossing with dressing.

Every one will want this recipe!

Options for the meat lovers: add rotisserie chicken!