Local flavour: Delicious nutrition
Some people see food preparation as a chore, but for Tsawwassen's Keyrsten McEwan, it's an opportunity to try new things.
"I'm one of those weird people who likes grocery shopping," she says with a laugh.
Her tasty cooking is proof positive that one can make healthy choices on the dinner table without sacrificing on flavour.
Her roasted root vegetable salad was a sudden inspiration drawn from a wealth of nutrition and cooking experience.
"I cook a lot and I always kind of throw stuff together," explains McEwan, who teaches a healthy eating cooking class to South Deltans.
A registered holistic nutrionist, she is a graduate of the Canadian School of Nutrition in Vancouver and works part-time out of a naturopath's office.
"For me, it's a stress reliever," McEwan says of cooking up new recipes. "It's something I look forward to at the end of the day."
For her roasted root vegetable salad, McEwan uses all locally grown ingredients, easy to find in South Delta's many organic farms.
Especially in-season are the yams, squash and golden beets, along with pumpkin seeds and cranberries.
McEwan tries to teach her clients how to use locally sourced food to create simple, nutritious meals.
To join her cooking classes call 778 -928-1811 or keyrsten.nutrition@gmail.com.
Roasted Root Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
Salad ingredients:
4 cups root vegetables, cut into small pieces (I used yams, delicata squash and golden beets)
2 tsp olive oil
unrefined sea salt and pepper
4 cups arugula
2 tbsp roasted pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp unsweetened dried cranberries
1/4 cup crumbled goat feta
Dressing Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Directions
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Toss root vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes or until tender and golden on edges. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile, place arugula in a serving bowl along with pumpkinseeds, cranberries and feta. When root vegetables are cool, add to the salad.
Place all dressing ingredients in a mason jar with a lid and shake until emulsified. This recipe makes more dressing than is needed, so add 1 tbsp at a time until salad is fully coated with dressing.
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