Roasted Vegetable Salad with Sugared Walnuts and Danish Feta

Every year I get a food assignment for Christmas dinner and this year I scored what I love to make, salads!! I wanted to do something a little bit different, but still yummy and memorable. At my work Christmas party, one of the girls made the above salad and it was so gorgeously divine, I was hooked and new I had to make it for my Christmas dinner! It is super easy to make.

Zuccini
Sweet potato
Grape or cherry tomatoes
Red onion
2-4 cloves of Garlic - up to your preferred taste
Capsicum - at least two different colours
( this is what I used, but you can adjust to what is in season, but never use potato!)

I small bag of baby spinach
1 small packet of walnuts
1 cup of sugar
Danish Feta - at least 150-200gs
Balsamic vinegar
Olive Oil.

Method
Pre heat oven to 180C.Chop up veges in to medium sized pieces(leave garlic whole or mince) and add to a plastic bag or larg zip loc bag and drizzle generously with oil and balsamic vinegar. Season to taste and toss veges so that all are covered well. If you have the time, marinade the vegetables for an hour or two, this will increase the flavour intensity.

Add to baking tray with juices and bake in oven for 30-40mins or until cooked well and a bit crispy. You can take the veges out once or twice during cooking time and toss and coat the veges. Once cooked leave out to cool down.

On low heat in a saucepan, add walnuts and sugar and toss to coat the walnuts until sugar is dissolved and walnuts are well coated and smell sweet. Be careful not to burn the sugar, as this will make them taste awful!! Set aside to cool.

Assembling the salad

Pour spinach leaves onto serving bowl or platter - I think its best not to have a deap bowl, more a large shallow dish. Add vegetables will juices. Add walnuts then crumble feta all over salad and serve immediately. You could also add semi dried tomatoes and olives if you like, but its not necessary. You can add more balsamic if desired.

This is a great recipe for BBQs or family gatherings because it doesn't cost too much to make a large quantity.

I also made an Asian cabbage and crunchy noodle salad that I added roasted silvered almonds too. It was super yummy and a natural crowd pleaser! Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of this:(