couscous & yam salad

last night i made a yam/couscous salad recipe that i found here and modified to suit my tastes. it was so awesome that i'm sharing it here. My notes are at the bottom.

2 medium-sized sweet potatos (or yams), cut into smallish chunks
2 carrots, chopped into chunks
1 green pepper, chopped into small sized pieces
1/2 of red onion, finely diced
1 cup couscous
1 lemon
olive oil
ground cumin
maple syrup
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 450. put the sweet potatoes & carrots on a cookie sheet and smoosh them around with some oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over top and bake until soft on the outside, crisp on the outside -- around 30 minutes or so. Meanwhile, chop the green pepper into small pieces and dice the onion finely. Prepare the couscous to the one cup of couscous according to the instructions on the pack. I used veggie broth instead of water.

When the vegetables are out of the oven, make the dressing. Squeeze lemon into a small bottle, add some olive oil, a teaspoon of cumin powder, and a bit of maple syrup and shake the mixture until well combined. The amounts in the dressing depend very much on personal taste - this is quite lemony, and you may want to increase the cumin, maple syrup and the oil. After tasting, you may want to add some salt & pepper. I did.

In a large bowl, combine the couscous, roasted veggies and green pepper. Pour the dressing, and stir in with a fork. Eat up.

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Next time I might add some raisins and walnuts into the bowl just because i like salads with raisins and nuts and I definitely think the texture and sweetness would go well with this salad. If i was feeling flush, i might also add some crumbled feta over top, but that would be just like showing off.