Happy September!! This is the day I personally deem acceptable to decorate for fall LOL. So I may have started the morning digging out my painted gingham pumpkins and working on a few more to add to the collection… 🤪🎃🍂 I felt a little ambitious with all the fall excitement and made my own take on Sweetgreen’s Harvest Warm Bowl for lunch. Check out my recipe for the similar [but different] salad I whipped up this afternoon, on the blog. I’ve decided to call it… “Sarah’s Harvest Salad!”

So good news and bad news.

Good news first… this salad is so dang tasty!! Bad news, it took a chunk of time to prep. Since I made it today, I don’t have insight on how the warm ingredients will reheat but there is a chance that the leftovers will go well and that it’s just a time suck on the prep side. All that to say, don’t rule it out if you’re worried about time, maybe just do all the prep on the weekend or make it as a dinner. But ya know, I just want to be real so I have to let you in on that part!

This recipe makes enough for 4 servings.

Ingredients

8 Cups Kale (chopped)
2 Cups Baby Spinach
2 Sweet Potatoes
1 Cup Dried Cranberries
12 oz John Soules Food Oven Roasted Diced Chicken
2 Small Honeycrisp Apples
Almond Slices
4 oz Goat Cheese
Wild Rice*
Swanson Vegetable Broth*
Balsamic Vinaigrette

*I cooked 1/4 cup of dry wild rice in 1 cup of vegetable broth on the stove but I was annoyed at how long it took and wasn’t super pleased with how it turned out, my suggestion is to buy Minute Ready-to-Serve wild rice which can be prepped in the microwave.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

2. Peel and dice sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil and stir to coat. Spread diced sweet potato on lined baking sheet in one layer. Once oven is preheated, bake for 20 minutes flipping halfway through.

3. Cook rice. See note below ingredients if trying to decide bet

4. Peel and chop apples. If you’re trying to prep in advance, you might not want to chop both apples since they will brown quickly.

5. Chop kale if needed. You can buy kale already chopped by the bag if you’re looking for a way to save time. I like to trim the stems off the baby spinach leaves, and I do so at this point. In a large container or bowl, mix the kale and spinach leaves.

6. Start to build your salad… place 1/4 of the kale/spinach mixture in your salad bowl. Add 1/4 cup of dried cranberries, 1/2 of a chopped apple, 1 oz of goat cheese.

7. Heat approximately 3 oz of chicken in microwave and let cool. (You may wish to actually oven roast your own chicken instead of using this kind)

8. Add rice, chicken and 1/4 of the roasted diced sweet potatoes to your salad and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.

9. If you cooked enough rice and sweet potatoes (and chicken if you didn’t get the pre-cooked kind) you’ll want to store them separately in the fridge in order to reheat for leftovers. I would keep the apples separate from the kale/spinach mix too but that’s up to you!

Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or medical professional and while I share what ingredients work for me or what I choose to eat (at my own risk) while dining out, I advise you do your homework when choosing ingredients and places to eat. I highly encourage everyone to do their own research when it comes to the products they cook with or restaurant’s procedures. I do not have celiac disease but rather a gluten-intolerance and I’m not an expert on gluten or other food intolerances, autoimmune diseases, or food allergies. I simply share the ingredients I have found work for me, the places where I’ve dined and my personal experiences.