Candied Yam Salad

Coconut Encrusted Yams with Apples, Goat Cheese, Spinach and Honey Glaze Salad

Inspired by one of my favorite bloggers - Undressed Skeleton, my sister had sent me this recipe for cinnamon roasted butternut squash salad and I was immediately in love. I had done a hard bootcamp and one of the fellow boot campers asked me if I was blogging that night. I told her that I wasn't going to and I was going to whip up one of my many go to salads. When I got home though, my husband had bought me a purple yam and I was so happy that he knew how happy that would make me, but also I immediately knew that I needed to create a version of this recipe for dinner. So blogging began! 





This salad did not require any dressing given how flavorful the yam ended up being. I would have loved WAY more spinach as I like lots of leafy greens but in this case, supplies were running low. I also would substitute pears for apples if (correct that, WHEN) I make this again.

This recipe made 2 salads with total calories of 300 each. The candied yams were approximately 177/cup.

Ingredients (for 2 servings): 

Purple Yam or Regular Yam - 4 cups cubed
Blue Agave Syrup - 1 tbls
Unsweetened Coconut Shredded - 1 tbls
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Spinach - 4 cups
Goat Cheese - 4 tbls
Apple - small/medium
Honey - 2 tbls

I have started to use this a lot more in cooking

My first purple yam

Directions:

Ok, laugh at me now, laugh later, but I was SHOCKED to find out that my purple yam was not purple at all. Perhaps this is common knowledge but I had no idea and had to chuckle at myself as I was picturing this colorful candied purple yam. Oh well, I moved on quickly. 

Dice the yam into small squares. I did 2 inch cubes, next time I would do 1 inch cubes as the 2 inch cubes were almost too big in the salad.  Add in the blue agave syrup, coconut, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Preheat the oven to 365'. Spread on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes. 

Take out of oven and flip, sprinkle with more nutmeg and cinnamon. 

Bake for another 20-30 minutes. Mine took longer than I thought, which is another reason I might make 1 inch cubes next time. I then drizzled with the honey and broiled for 2-3 minutes. My kitchen smelt like heaven at this point. 

Take out of the oven and let cool while you make the rest of the salad. 

Place spinach on the plates. I wish I had WAY more spinach, but the bag was half empty after my green smoothie posting. 

Add in goat cheese and diced apples.

Add the yams and enjoy. 

Don't forget the husband friendly version. My husband had some beef tenderloin left over and he fried it up to serve with this salad. 

My salad was more than enough for me. The yams are very filling! 

Husband friendly version. Salad as I made it. On the side, he added his grilled steak and a ton of the leftover yams. He enjoyed the yams and it is a repeat recipe for sure!