Fall Harvest Salad

Ingredients:

• 4-6 cups chopped kale (I like Lacinto/Dino best for this)
• 1 diced Honeycrisp apple
• ½ cup chopped pecans
• Arils (seeds) from one pomegranate

Sweet Potatoes

• 1 large sweet potato, diced
• 1 Tbsp coconut, avocado or olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp fresh cracked pepper

Chicken

• 2 large or 3 small chicken breasts (optional or sub with garbanzo beans or extra firm tofu and use this marinade)
• 2 Tbsp coconut, avocado or olive oil
• ½ tsp cinnamon 
• 1 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp fresh cracked pepper

Dressing

• Balsamic vinaigrette

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 425. Grab two baking sheets and line with parchment paper if you’d like easier cleanup.
2. If using, prepare the chicken marinade. You can do this more in advance if you want a longer marinade.
3. Toss the sweet potato cubes, oil and salt and pepper in a large bowl to coat.
4. Spread the sweet potato cubes out on a sheet pan, place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
5. Then place the chicken breasts on the other sheetpan and add to the same oven for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
6. Meanwhile, wash and chop your kale and apple. Remove arils from the pomegranate and chop the pecans.
7. Prepare the balsamic vinaigrette.
8. Place the kale in a large bowl and coat with the vinaigrette. It aids digestion to hand massage the kale in your vinaigrette. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
9. Allow sweet potatoes to cool slightly, then add to kale and toss.
10. Chop slightly cooled chicken and toss again.
11. Add apple cubes, pecans and pomegranate arils. Add any additional salt and pepper to your liking and toss once more.
12. Add more balsamic to your preference.
13. You can always add goat cheese, swap dried cranberries for the pomegranate arils or use salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) instead of pecans!