Autumn Harvest Chicken Salad with Maple Mustard Tahini Dressing

This past week we conducted a live, virtual cooking demo for our partners at MetroHealth in Cleveland. Here's the recipe our own Nicole Ryan, Registered Dietitian and Founder of Good Soul Nutrition, is sharing so you can create the same dish at home using this week's delicious produce from our boxes!

My latest and most favorite fall recipe has arrived! This autumn harvest chicken salad with maple tahini dressing is FULL of so many fall favorites such as sweet potatoes, red beets, honey crisp apples, and crunchy pumpkin seeds… not to mention the maple tahini dressing that I could drink with a straw!

I won’t bore you with a long drawn-out blog post, because this salad speaks for ITSELF! Trust me that it’s chock-full of macronutrients and micronutrients that will energize and nourish your whole self. Here are the recipe details!

Ingredients

2 apples, cored and sliced
1 cup pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted
2 medium sweet potatoes or 1 large, peeled and diced
1-2 medium red beets, peeled and diced
6–8 cups arugula or mixed salad greens
1 1/2 C chopped cooked chicken (rotisserie works great!)
salt and pepper to taste

Maple Mustard Tahini

¼ cup runny tahini
1 TBS maple syrup
1 TBS dijon mustard
2 TBS diced white onion
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
Himalayan sea salt and black pepper, to taste
1–2 TBS water (or more as needed to thin)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Scrub and peel your sweet potato and beets and cut into ~1″ squares. Arrange on the baking sheet with space between the beets and sweet potatoes (the beets will stain!). Spray lightly with oil spray season with salt and black pepper. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until fork tender.

3. Meanwhile, blend up your maple mustard tahini dressing by adding all ingredients to a high speed blender and pulsing until smooth. Add water in 1 TBSP increments to thin to desired consistency.

4. When the sweet potato and beets are done baking, reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees. Add the pumpkin seeds to the baking sheet and toast for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant.

5. Slice the apples into thin slices while the pumpkin seeds are toasting and toss in lemon juice (to prevent browning).

6. Dice or slice the cooked chicken.

7. Assemble the salad by first adding the dark greens, then roasted root veggies, apple slices, chicken, and pumpkin seeds. Drizzle with the dressing, serve and enjoy!