Sweet Potato Green Salad

Who here has heard of a sweet potato green salad? Sure, it’s an unusual name, but the concept is delicious. Root veggies. Greens. Together with some creamy goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. If it sounds weird, you’re missing out.

For me, sweet potato green salad was a happy accident. I never searched the web for such terms. Instead, my fork identified the tasty combo for me. One day I was eating some root veggies with greens on the side, and bam. I stabbed my fork into a little bit of everything (as I am prone to do), and realized that sweet potatoes should pretty much always go on salad. 

I mean, not always. But pretty darn often.

Full disclosure: Some people in my household do not agree. Some people don’t love sweet potatoes the way I do. But I have noticed that this trend goes beyond my own kitchen. For example, it wouldn’t be totally strange to see sweet potatoes on a salad at some kind of hippy dippy cafe, or even an experimental restaurant. 

Who knows, the idea might have gotten in my head subconsciously from once eating a salad in South Africa with dried up butternut in it. We don’t always know how genius strikes!

However it got there, sweet potato is perhaps a surprisingly delectable addition to most salads with a base of spring mix. 

Sweet Potato Green Salad Ingredients

The beautiful thing about salads is that they are pretty flexible most of the time, at least when it comes to ingredients. Still, it’s nice to have a few staples per salad recipe that you know go together so beautifully that they will always work. 

For this salad, those staples are sweet potato, goat cheese, and spring mix as a base. And balsamic vinaigrette makes a great complement to these particular flavors.

Extras that are always appreciated include roasted red bell peppers and some form of cooked or pickled onion. 

If this is beginning to sound complicated, stop right there! This is meant to be easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. You can often find frozen sweet potatoes in your grocery store’s freezer, and if you’re lucky it’ll come with bits of parsnip and red onion sprinkled in too! 

Or, if you’re like me, your fridge *always* has a big jar of pickled red onions ready to go.

As for the bell pepper, roasted–mind you, that comes ready-made, too. Stroll by the shelves where you find pickles and olives, and there you shall find jars of pre-sliced roasted red pepper that is ridiculously easy to throw on just about anything, but especially on a sweet potato green salad.

Goat cheese is available almost anywhere, too. And to jazz up your salads (and anything else you’re using goat cheese for), it’s always nice to get the garlic and herb goat cheese log. Or the plain–whatever floats your boat. 

Sweet Potato Green Salad Health Benefits

Sweet Potato: The yummiest potato of all, sweet potato is not only sweet, but also packed with eye-helping beta-carotene from all that bright orange inside. It also contains half the daily requirement for vitamin C, plus tons of manganese, copper, and vitamin b6 (feeling moody, anyone?). It feeds your gut with soluble fiber, and simply tastes good alongside almost anything.

Spring mix: Different brands of spring mix may vary slightly in the types of lettuce they include, but most are a mix of tender baby lettuce like red and green romaine, spinach, red and green oak leaf, chard, and sometimes even arugula and radicchio. The health benefit of eating spring mix is that all of these lettuces contain antioxidant vitamins and fiber to clean your insides. Spring mix? Think: spring cleaning. 

Goat cheese: This flavorful, creamy cheese, also known as chèvre, is a healthy, whole food source of fat and protein. It’s easier for most people to digest compared to cow’s milk. And it comes with some minerals, too–namely calcium, phosphorus and copper. 

Red Bell Pepper: A great source of fiber, these colorful fruits are often mistaken for vegetables. They’re high in antioxidants to keep you looking and feeling young, covering all ABC vitamins plus vitamin E. They also have a special dose of capsanthin, the potent antioxidant that makes them red.  

How To Make Sweet Potato Green Salad

The only thing you really need to spend time preparing for this recipe are the sweet potatoes. If they are cooked and frozen, simply reheat in an oven or air fryer according to package instructions.

If you’re starting with a whole, raw sweet potato, it’s not much work, either. Simply chop your potato into bite-sized squares, cover with a dash of coconut or avocado oil, and bake at 400 degrees. If you’re baking with an oven, you’ll need about 30 minutes. In an air fryer, you’ll need about 15. 

While the potato is baking or warming up, layer some spring mix into a bowl, and mix with the vinaigrette of your choice. Alternately, if you don’t have anything pre-made on hand, drizzle your lettuce with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 

You could always add your dressing at the end, but I like to make sure my lettuce is fully coated first. This also lets the other flavors shine: if my greens are taken care of, I usually don’t even need any extra drizzles on top.

Toss on your sweet potato and bell pepper, and top with crumbled goat cheese. It’s okay if your sweet potato is still a little warm from the oven. This actually makes it extra cozy and yummy.

Eat as a main dish or use as a side. To make this sweet potato green salad extra filling, add ½-¾ cups of cooked quinoa to the bowl, or some roasted chickpeas or tofu.

This recipe can easily be doubled or even quadrupled, but here I will post ingredients to serve one person because it’s such a fast, easy meal whether you’re feeding a group or just yourself.