Mediterranean sweet potato salad
This Mediterranean sweet potato salad with chickpeas and kale is a flavour sensation, with the freshness of orange, cucumber, feta, pistachios, almonds, fresh dill and mint, topped off with pickled onions and served with a yoghurt honey dressing is a salad that ticks all the flavour boxes. Yummm!
Mediterranean sweet potato salad
Mediterranean sweet potato salad
Mediterranean sweet potato salad
If there’s one thing we all need in our lives, it's a really good Mediterranean sweet potato recipe, am I right? My fave, you may have guessed, is in salad form. My Mediterranean sweet potato salad with chickpeas and kale is honestly one of my all time favourites.
What you'll love about this recipe
There’s so much to love. It's so nourishing and hearty for a vegetarian salad. I’ll make this for a light dinner, take it to a BBQ, meal-prep it for work lunches, or serve it with a piece of grilled chicken to make it into a heartier meal.
Cooking tips and variations for making this salad
The sweet potatoes are deliciously spiced with smoked paprika and cinnamon and baked with chickpeas until the sweet potatoes are caramelised and the chickpeas are crispy. Make sure you dice your sweet potatoes at even sizes to avoid the smaller pieces burning while bigger pieces are cooking. Add the chickpeas and spices partway through the baking process to make sure they both finish cooking at the same time.
Test to see if your sweet potatoes are cooked by sticking a fork or knife into a piece and if it goes in easily with no resistance it’s ready!
Building your Mediterranean sweet potato salad: You’ll first want to tenderise your kale (and onions if not using pickled onions) with olive oil and lemon, then add in the sweet potato and chickpeas, followed by cucumber, herbs, nuts, feta, then add pickled onions and orange segments that burst with flavour, the sweet and sharp flavour pairs so wonderfully with the sweet potato.
Making a yoghurt honey dressing is so simple and it’s absolutely delicious with baked sweet potato. Just add the ingredients to a jar and shake!
A little food styling tip for salads, keep aside a little of each ingredient to top with after tossing all ingredients together.
A delicious variation would be adding some chopped avocado or even swapping out the sweet potato for butternut squash if they are in season.
Other salads to try
Salads are a wonderful thing, and if you love a flavour packed salad, my Warm pumpkin salad, Easy Chicken Caesar Salad, Apple, kale and mint salad and Pear, Prosciutto and Rocket Salad are ones to add to your list.
Yes, swap feta for a dairy free cheese and greek yoghurt for oat yoghurt.
Totally! Like most salads, it’s best eaten straight away but you can definitely make it in advance. I just advise adding the dressing right before serving.
Ingredients and substitutions
How to make it - step by step!
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 390 F. On a lined baking tray, add sweet potato with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, toss to combine, roast for 20 minutes.
Move the sweet potato to one side then add the chickpeas, scatter over cinnamon and smoked paprika over sweet potato and chickpeas, then over the chickpeas a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, stir to combine then and roast for another 10-15 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender and caramelised, set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, add kale and onions (if not using pickled onions), drizzle with 1/2 lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil, scrunch with clean hands to soften the kale.
In a jar, add yoghurt, honey, remaining ½ lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper, tighten the lid and shake to emulsify. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Add sweet potato, chickpeas, cucumber, orange, pickled onions, herbs, pistachios and almonds to a bowl, keeping aside a small amount of each ingredient for decorating after the salad has been tossed together.
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 390 F. On a lined baking tray, add sweet potato with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, toss to combine, roast for 20 minutes.
Move the sweet potato to one side then add the chickpeas, scatter over cinnamon and smoked paprika over sweet potato and chickpeas, then over the chickpeas a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, stir to combine then and roast for another 10-15 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender and caramelised, set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, add kale and onions (if not using pickled onions), drizzle with 1/2 lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil, scrunch with clean hands to soften the kale.
In a jar, add yoghurt, honey, remaining ½ lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper, tighten the lid and shake to emulsify. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Add sweet potato, chickpeas, cucumber, orange, pickled onions, herbs, pistachios and almonds to a bowl, keeping aside a small amount of each ingredient for decorating after the salad has been tossed together.
Watch the how to video
Watch the how to video
Mediterranean sweet potato salad
- 2 sweet potatoes, diced, about 3 cups
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 cups kale, destemmed, torn into small pieces
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 orange, peeled and cut into segments
- 1 Lebanese cucumber, cut into quarter slices
- ¼ cup dill, fresh
- 1/3 cup flat leaf parsley, fresh
- 1/3 cup mint, fresh
- ¼ cup pink pickled onions or 1 small red onion, finely sliced
- ⅓ cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped
- ⅓ cup pistachios roughly chopped
- 100g feta
- 4 tbsp Greek yoghurt
- 1 tsp honey
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- Preheat the oven to 200C / 390 F. On a lined baking tray, add sweet potato with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, toss to combine, roast for 20 minutes.
- Move the sweet potato to one side then add the chickpeas, scatter over cinnamon and smoked paprika over sweet potato and chickpeas, then over the chickpeas a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, stir to combine then and roast for another 10-15 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender and caramelised, set aside to cool for a few minutes.
- Meanwhile, add kale and onions (if not using pickled onions), drizzle with 1/2 lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil, scrunch with clean hands to soften the kale.
- In a jar, add yoghurt, honey, remaining ½ lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper, tighten the lid and shake to emulsify. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Add sweet potato, chickpeas, cucumber, orange, pickled onions, herbs, pistachios and almonds to a bowl, keeping aside a small amount of each ingredient for decorating after the salad has been tossed together.
- Just before serving, drizzle over yoghurt dressing and toss everything together, top with feta and reserved ingredients.
