Spinach Salad with Roasted Veggies and Avocado Cilantro Dressing

Today's post was inspired from a prepared salad I recently purchased at Trader Joe's. Now when I say inspired I mean this in the loosest form. The salad greens were spinach and the dressing was cilantro based but most of the other ingredients I have changed. The dressing I used was tangy and creamy and I could have just eaten it by the spoonful. It was that good. The recipe for salad dressing is slightly adapted from the Eatingwell.com website.

Ingredients:

Salad:

1/2 cauliflower (cut into florets)
1 small sweet potato (dice about same size as the cauliflower florets)
1-2 teaspoon olive oil
4 cups spinach
1/4 cup cooked quinoa
2 stalks green onions (thinly sliced)
1/2 cup black beans (if using canned be sure and rinse)
1/2 ripe avocado (diced)

Dressing:

1/2 ripe avocado
3/4 cup packed cilantro
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 scallions (chopped)
1 small clove garlic (grated)
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt

To prepare the salad:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Place prepped cauliflower and sweet potato into sheet pan, lightly coat with olive oil and mix. Bake approx 20 minutes until tender and lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool.

In the meantime, place avocado, cilantro, yogurt, scallions, garlic, lime juice, honey and salt into food processor, blend until smooth. Keep refrigerated, there should be extra.

In a large bowl add all salad ingredients and toss lightly. You can add salad dressing at this time and mix or serve on the side. Enjoy!