I hate mayonnaise. And I don’t like cold noodles (except soba, sesame noodles, and some other Asian noodle dishes). As a result, I hate almost all picnic salads: potato salad, egg salad, (veggie) chicken salad, macaroni salad, pasta salad. Ew, ew, EW!

Then I came across a recipe in the New York Times (before they instituted the paywall…don’t even get me started on that) from my favorite food author, Mark Bittman for Roasted Sweet Potato Salad. I love sweet potatoes. I could literally eat them every day. And no mayonnaise. So not only is it Amy friendly, it’s picnic friendly too (no need to worry about how to refrigerate while out for the day). Oh, and did I mention there’s garlic, cilantro, red onions, AND black beans?! YUM!

I made it for the first time for a potluck almost two year ago. But I had the dressing in a separate container and was going to sprinkle it on when I got there. I had also brought a regular salad, and one of the deaconesses put the dressing on the salad instead of the sweet potatoes. It tasted good, but not what it was supposed to.

I have continued to make it for myself for dinner since then (with the dressing properly applied). But it had been a while since I made it, especially for others. Last night I had a dinner with some cohorts from the legal history program, so decided to bring it as a side dish. And they loved it. Two people asked for the recipe. So I figured I may as continue to share. 🙂