Secret Recipe Club: Chorizo, Sweet Potato, Roasted Pepper and Manchego Salad

After taking a break for the holidays, Group D of the Secret Recipe Club is back! For those who haven’t seen my previous Secret Recipe Club posts, this club includes a group of bloggers who are assigned a different blog each month and secretly make a recipe to post on their specified reveal day. I look forward to my assignment email every month and discovering new blogs. It is also fun to see what someone chooses from your blog.

This month I was assigned to Sue’s A Palatable Pastime. Sue started her blog in May 2013 as a way to share her recipes and cooking ideas. She is drawn to Heartland/Southern cooking, but also features quite a bit of diversity. She has a great mixture of simple to more complex recipes with real, quality ingredients. Her Chorizo, Sweet Potato, Roasted Pepper, and Manchego Salad caught my eye, but I also pinned Mardi Gras King Cake (perfect for this time of year), Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt, Rustic Tortellini Soup, Alsatian Quiche, Chernika Oladi, Irish Banger Dogs, Elote, and Bucatini with Pistachio Gremolata for later.

I absolutely loved the color and flavor combination in this salad. An arugula blend (I used packaged arugula and spinach) is topped with sliced roasted sweet potatoes, Spanish chorizo, toasted almonds, roasted peppers, and Manchego cheese. It is lightly seasoned with an olive oil lemon dressing.

I didn’t have any basil paste, so I substituted with a pesto paste. I swapped the fire roasted red bell pepper for a jarred piquillo pepper that I had on hand and have been trying to use up.

I toasted the almonds in a dry skillet before I heated the chorizo. Keep an eye on them. They burn quickly.

Check out what everyone else in Group D made!

Chorizo, Sweet Potato, Roasted Pepper and Manchego Salad
Adapted from A Palatable Pastime
Serves 2-3

Salad:
3 cups arugula salad blend
3 ounces Spanish chorizo
1 fire roasted piquillo or red bell pepper, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced
6 ounces sweet potato, roasted and cooled
2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted
1 ounce Manchebo cheese, shaved
Dressing:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon basil paste

 

Place the arugula salad blend on a large serving platter.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Thinly slice the chorizo and add to the heated skillet. Cook, stirring often, until heated through and the fat has been rendered. Remove from heat and transfer to a towel lined plate using a slotted spoon to drain excess moisture. Add to the salad along with the thinly sliced pepper.

Peel the roasted sweet potato and thinly slice. Arrange over the salad. Sprinkle with almonds and cheese.

For the dressing: Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and basil paste.

Serve immediately with the salad.