Roasted Sweet Potato and Arugula Salad

Last week I had a brilliant idea for an puff pastry appetizer topped with a red onion chutney, blue cheese crumbles, and candied walnuts, but something happened and the whole thing failed miserably. For some reason the puff pastry just didn’t puff and I ended up with a sheet pan of sad little bites and so now I’m sharing a salad.

That’s how things happen sometimes.

I did salvage the leftover candied walnuts because – wow! – have you ever made your own candied walnuts? Despite the appetizer challenges I couldn’t let those walnuts go to waste because they were just too good to not use for something else. So I thought, “A salad! With roasted sweet potatoes! With arugula and a light Dijon dressing!”

And that’s why I’m posting a roasted sweet potato and arugula salad. I needed something to go with those candied walnuts.

 Which, by the way, are so easy to make and you don’t even have to turn on your oven. If you google “candied walnuts” the first link that pops up is from the blog Natasha’s Kitchen that will lead you to an easy 5-minute candied walnut recipe. All you need is a non-stick pan, a spatula, some sugar, butter, walnuts, and the patience to stir continuously for five minutes until your walnuts are coated in all the sticky-sweet sugar goodness. You can make them ahead to use in all sorts of things – salads, sandwiches, and baked goods are just a few ideas.

I went the salad route… well, I chose the salad route after I screwed up the first thing, but never mind – what’s important is that it all ends deliciously well.

P.S. I picked up a tip from Recipe Tin Eats that has changed my potato roasting game — preheat the baking sheet before roasting the potatoes. When the oiled potatoes hit that hot pan they will get crispy and caramelized. In other words – quite tasty.

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