Sweetgreen Harvest Bowl Salad

B and I always been really into cooking together (one of the reasons I married him!), and we’ve really been cooking a lot more with the quarantine shutting down all the restaurants and the entire city. Luckily the city shutting down hit at a pretty good time for us.

We had been gifted a couples massage by my brother-in-law for Christmas, and I had been saving it for march to celebrate our wedding anniversary, B taking his surgery boards, and me starting maternity leave.

We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a fancy seafood date night (we had no idea that would be our last meal out). B took his surgery boards (thankfully he did it before all the exams were stopped). We relaxed with our fancy couples massage (the whole city shut down two days later).

I’m grateful I finished my last hospital shifts before coronavirus really hit our hospitals because I wanted to be as healthy as possible for whenever I went into labor. My big fear was having symptoms or testing positive for COVID19 and being separated from B or the baby.

Since most of the B’s surgeries were postponed and his clinics closed, B has been home more, and we’ve enjoyed this time together before the baby arrives. He really wanted to get in shape to “be strong for the baby” and was using this extra time to exercise and lose some weight.

Unfortunately for B, our apartment complex closed, and he was incredibly bummed about no longer being able to work out. On the plus side, we downloaded some exercise apps and started working out together at home for the first time ever (“working out” being a loose term for me given how big my belly was).

We cut back on red meats and ate way more salads – it’s been nice to eat cleaner. Today’s recipe is a copycat recipe for Sweetgreen’s Harvest Bowl Salad (Here is my other Sweetgreen copy recipe for their Curry Chicken Salad). Enjoy!

Ingredients
SALAD
1/4 cup organic wild rice
1 sweet potato, cubed
olive oil
1 cup chopped kale
1/4 cooked rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 apple, sliced
3 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup roasted almonds
salt and pepper, to taste

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE
1⁄4 cup olive oil
1/4 tablespoons high-quality balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
SALAD: Cook rice according to package directions. Preheat oven to 450F. Place sliced sweet potatoes on a baking sheet lined with foil. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast until pieces are slightly crisped on the edges.

In a large serving bowl, add the kale and toss salad with balsamic vinaigrette to coat. Top with rice, sweet potatoes, rotisserie chicken, apple slices, goat cheese and almonds. Serve with bread slices on the side.

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE: Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard in a small bowl. Whisk with a fork until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Can be stored for 2 weeks.