Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Salad

My partner's father turned 60 yesterday - to celebrate, we had a big family lunch with salads, seafood and cold meats. Ah, gotta love an Aussie party on a plus-forty day. We had an absolute cornucopia of food. My contribution to the day was a few salads - asparagus (panfried in olive oil and butter, with a little grated parmesan), potato (in a cream and mustard dressing with parsley) and one of my favourites, sweet potato and pumpkin. The latter seemed to go down a treat - so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Salad

You will need

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 Tbsp vinegar (we used white wine - but you can use balsamic, red wine - or even lemon juice)

1 Tbsp honey

250 g cashew nuts

250g pumpkin

500 g sweet potato

nutmeg

cinnamon

sea salt

200 g green beans

250 g feta

100g thinly sliced prosciutto

roasting pan

boiling water

knife + cutting board

salad bowl

spray oil

1. Chop feta into 1 cm cubes.
2. Mix olive oil, vinegar, cashews, feta and honey in a small bowl. (This can be done the night before.) Seal and refrigerate - the marinade is best if allowed to sit overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 180 C.
4. Chop up pumpkin and sweet potato into 2 cm cubes. Spray with oil and sprinkle on salt, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. Roast until tender. (This took 45 minutes for the sweet potato and 30 mins for the pumpkin). Allow to cool (again, this can be done the night before).
5. Top and tail the green beans and cut into bite sized pieces. Microwave in boiling water for 2 minutes or until cooked but still crunchy. Drain off boiling water and run under cold water until cool.
6. Tear up prosciutto.
7. In your salad bowl, layer the sweet potato, pumpkin, beans, feta, cashews and prosciutto. Top with the remaining marinade and serve!

A guaranteed crowd pleaser on the cheap and lazy - that's my kind of family meal!