This is a Sweet Potato Salad with oomph!
With roasted sweet potato, baby spinach, wild rice, feta and almonds drizzled with a honey lemon lemon sauce, there’s a great variety of textures and flavours. You’ll happily scoff down a giant bowl for dinner, take leftovers to work the next day, you’ll feel full, you’ll feel good, and you won’t miss meat!
Sweet Potato Salad
If the kaleidoscope of colour doesn’t get you, then ONE BITE is all it will take to convince you that this is a sweet potato salad to die for!!
It’s got it all – freshness from baby spinach, sweet cubes of sweet potato with caramelised edges. The nutty chewiness of wild rice, creamy sweet pops of feta, the soft crunch of almonds and chewy sweetness from cranberries, all topped off with a tangy honey lemon dressing…
Well, if that description didn’t convince YOU, it certainly convinced ME that I need to make this again ASAP!!
Make this sweet potato salad as an impressive side, or serve it as a meal!
What goes in Sweet Potato Salad
Here’s what you need:
Plenty of sub options – even for the sweet potato itself – I’ve listed suggestions below!
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Sweet potato – sub with pumpkin or butternut squash (we call them butternut pumpkin in Australia);
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Wild rice – I LOVE wild rice, it’s got a nutty flavour that makes it so much more interesting than normal white rice. To reduce the carb quota, you could leave it out (which is what I usually do for midweek), or try other options like: brown rice, quinoa, farro, barley or other grains (psst While warm, we toss with some dressing so it sucks up flavour. So really, you can use anything here!);
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Cranberries – sub with any dried fruit! If it’s large like apricots or apple, give it a rough chop;
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Feta – or goats cheese;
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Baby Spinach – Rocket / arugula is also terrific!
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Flaked almonds – flaked almonds is a good way to make less nuts go further! Love the way it disperses all throughout this salad. However, feel free to use any nuts you prefer!
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Lemon – sub with apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar;
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Honey – sugar or maple syrup; and
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Mustard – I use this to thicken the dressing because I think this salad really benefits from everything being coated really nicely with dressing. If you’re a mustard hater, sub with mayo instead.
How to make Sweet Potato Salad
Nothing tricky here, it’s very straight forward! I like how this Sweet Potato Salad has a nice flow to it: get the Wild Rice simmering in water first, then get the potato in the oven while you prep the Dressing and other ingredients.
Then bring it all together and devour!
I chop the sweet potato into fairly small cubes to make it easier to eat (and also better dressing-to-potato ratio), so we can only roast them until the edges start caramelising – any longer, and they get overly soft and too delicate to handle.
A fabulous side dish – or a meal!
I say this is a fantastic side dish – and it is the sort of thing that I would take to gatherings as something a little different.
But truthfully, I make this more often as a meal than as a side. In fact, I can only ever recall serving it as a side dish once!
To me, this is the sort of salad that’s interesting and substantial enough to be served as a meal, even to self confessed Carnivores like myself! Plus, it would be a FABULOUS work lunch.
That’s Fabulous with a capital F!!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Sweet Potato Salad
Ingredients
Sweet potato:
- 1kg / 2 lb sweet potato , cut into 2cm / 4/5" cubes (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt and pepper
Salad:
- 200g/ 7oz baby spinach (or rocket/arugula)
- 1/2 red onion , finely sliced
- 3/4 cup sliced almond , toasted
- 90g/ 3oz feta , crumbled
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 2 cups cooked wild rice , warm (Note 2)
Honey Lemon Mustard Dressing:
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 5 tbsp extra olive oil
- 1.5 tbsp honey
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 garlic clove , small, minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F.
- Shake Dressing ingredients in a jar.
- Toss sweet potato with olive oil, salt and pepper, spread onto tray.
- Roast for 20 minutes, flip, then roast for a further 5 minutes until golden on edges.
- Place baby spinach, onion and half almonds in a bowl. Drizzle with 2 tbsp Dressing, toss.
- Drizzle warm rice with 1 tbsp Dressing, toss.
- Spread spinach on serving platter. Top with rice, then sweet potato and cranberries.
- Drizzle with remaining Dressing, then top with feta and remaining almonds. Serve!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More Fabulous, SUBSTANTIAL Meat Free Salads and Sides
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Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Rocket/Arugula – this one is made with larger pieces of sweet potato that are roasted until deep golden
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Fondant Sweet Potatoes – roasted with stock, this is a sweet n’ savoury side that’s perfect for Thanksgiving or anytime!
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Roasted Pumpkin with Yogurt Sauce and Pine Nuts – a quick and easy roast pumpkin side that’s endlessly adaptable
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Giant Couscous Salad – you’ll love how the couscous is cooked in an aromatic broth so it soaks up all that incredible flavour!
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Wild Rice Salad – regular readers know I’m mad for this salad 😇
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Sexy Lentil Salad – YES you read that right. I said SEXY!! 😂
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My Favourite Quinoa Salad – an Asian-style salad that’s full of interesting textures, and enough heft to make a meal
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A big, fat Caesar Salad
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Browse more Mighty Salads and more Side Salads
Life of Dozer
Then….
…and now!
This salad is next level delicious! I’m obsessed 🤍
Excellent! I made this today and loved it! I made it with Farro instead of rice and it was delicious. I cooked the farro in chicken stock to add that little extra richness and used cherry flavored dried cranberries. I will definitely be making this recipe again!
I made this with the risoni pasta salad, so I omitted the wild rice, and used chopped apricots instead. Very tasty
Made this last night using brown rice, Amazing, will definitely be a regular. The lemon dressing is so fresh and lovely. Thanks Nagi for another awesome recipe 😍
Delicious!! Made for family ( not salad fans). . They loved it and have asked to make it again for Xmas 🎄
Made this for a trial run for xmas. Definitely making for xmas!!! So yummy!!!
Another knockout meal! I couldn’t get wild rice here so used a wild rice/long grain rice mix and oh my gosh it was fantastic. All the different ingredients in this come together so well. We ate it as a main meal but wished there was more, not because there wasn’t enough but just because it was so so good!!
A beautiful and very filling salad. I ate it as my main meal and devoured every last morsel.
Dear Nagi,
AMAZING!!!
What a perfect balance of flavours. 10/10 from the entire family.
Mum couldn’t stop ooohhhing and aaaahhhhing as she was eating…it was a little embarrassing to be honest, but hey that’s how much she enjoyed it!
Keep ‘em coming Nagi – we appreciate your efforts as well as your team’s.
I made this for a friends BBQ and everyone even small kids loved it. All wanted the recipe 😃. Also made it fit niece while she was visiting recently and was requested to make it again. Love, love your recipes. 🌸
This salad is fantastic, love the tip about mixing in some dressing with the rice – thanks Nagi
Hi Nagi, thank you for this great recipe. I have a hard time finding wild rice in my area South East Brisbane) and it is quite expensive ($8 for 150g dry rice)for a very small amount in the health shops (who didn’t have stock). I tried using black rise instead and my guests really liked it. I also used butternut instead of sweet potato. Tonight I’ll be trying it with sweet potato. I would love to try it with wild rice,when I can get ahold it. I’m assuming you get your wild rice at Harris Farm?
I absolutely love this salad and am happy to rave about it to anyone who will listen! My SIL is allergic to honey, so I’ll take some out and dress hers separately. What do you recommend as an alternative? Would rice malt syrup be suitable?
I sometimes use maple syrup instead of honey. It works well.
I made this for a dinner party and it wowed everybody! Even the ones who didn’t particularly care for sweet potatoes were blown away! The dressing is also fantastic and perfect for other salads too. I added fresh strawberries since I had them on hand and they added a lovely pop of red as well as a tangy, fruity twist. I’ll be sure to make this one again!
Very good salad, lasted well a few days in the fridge!
Absolutely delicious! Was demolished at our family dinner.
I am happy that they enjoyed it Sarrah!! N x
Make this today for Christmas party and everyone asked for the recipe
I am asked to bring this salad to every family event! It’s easy to cook the rice and sweet potato, and to make the dressing before hand and then just assemble right before serving. An absolute hit every time!
Sensational! So easy, yet so tasty. The honey lemon mustard dressing was amazing.
Made this salad as instructed, omitting the grain option. Took it for a gathering thinking it might be too much quantity for the small crowd. But the whole thing was wolfed down, scraping the salad bowl at the end. Thank you Nagi for another “super hit” recipe!!