Winter Meatball, Roast Carrot and Orange Salad with Maple Syrup and Sourdough Crumb

This Winter Meatball, Roast Carrot and Orange Salad is a delicious and oh-so-easy to make winter salad that is packed with flavour and easily adaptable using ingredients you may already have. You can swap the maple syrup for honey and the micro greens can be swapped for salad leaves. Just use whatever you have that is fresh and tasty.

You will need:

• One fresh bunch of young carrots, scrubbed.
• 2 whole oranges, peeled and sliced. Remove pips if they have any.
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup or honey
• Maldon sea salt and ground black pepper
• Mix of Joyful little Leaves microgreens and sunflower sprouts. Approx 80 grams. Swap for fresh salad leaves if you don’t have microgreens
• 6 Hecks, Pork and Fennel Sausages. Or any good quality course-ground sausages
• Big Score Sourdough Crumb. Any day old fresh crusty bread is fine and make it a coarse crumb so it has plenty of crispy texture. Don’t use fine breadcrumbs.

Vinegarette

• Equal amounts , approx1 Tbsp of each, to taste.
• Olive Oil
• Orange Juice
• Maple Syrup
• Roasting pan juices
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Set oven to 180 degrees , fan bake.
2. Scrub carrots and cut in half lengthwise
3. Peel and slice oranges into disks 1 cm thick
4. Add to a roasting dish with oil, maple syrup and seasonings. Toss to coat.
5. Roast for 35 to 45 minutes, turning twice.
6. While the carrots and oranges are cooking, squeeze small sausage balls from the casings and pan fry with a small amount of olive oil until golden. Set aside to cool while the carrots finish cooking.
7. Use fry pan to toast crumb in a little oil until golden. Add crushed garlic when crumbs are almost ready for an extra kick of flavour. Maybe add some fresh herbs like thyme.
8. Whisk ingredients to make vinegarette .
9. Assemble by placing the dressed leaves on the serving dishes, scatter the sausage, top with the carrots , orange and crumb.

A nice addition would be horseradish cream to serve! Yummmm!