Spicy Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
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A savory vegetarian or vegan roasted sweet potato salad recipe with black beans and creamy avocado sauce. Serve this amazingly flavorful salad warm or at room temperature.
Here’s a totally not-boring recipe for you, starring roasted sweet potato — our favorite tuber.
I’ve been happily eating this tasty little salad on repeat for the past few weeks.
The dish features chunks of sweet potato coated in savory spices, roasted until tender.
The spiced-up beauties are tossed into a salad studded with black beans, jalapeño and red onion.
And, the thick and creamy avocado crema spooned alongside the vegetable salad is the BEST little sauce/dressing/dip you’ll want to keep with you at all times.
Grab a spoon, because you’ll want to devour every drop!
This dish would make a perfect lunch or dinner salad. You can add a piece of meat/fish protein (if you’re not vegetarian) and make it more of a hefty meal.
I’ve even scooped spoonfuls of the salad onto corn tortillas for a quick on-the-go taco snack.
Note: If you want to make this sweet potato salad vegan, just leave out the feta cheese in the crema sauce.
Do sweet potatoes need to be peeled?
The short and quick answer is no.
Keeping the peel on brings all kinds of nutritious benefits.
You get good things like Vitamin E, iron and fiber, and even some nutrients that aren’t in the flesh.
Plus the roasted skin adds a nice bit of texture.
How to prepare sweet potatoes for roasting
First, give the sweet potatoes a good scrub under running water.
Grab a vegetable peeler and remove any bits that look dirty or damaged, here and there. Feel free to skip this step if you don’t mind those bits!
I also trim off the pointy ends because they tend to burn by the time the sweet potatoes are finished roasting.
The sweet potatoes end up looking half-undressed, but you get a little of everything in each bite that way.
How to roast sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are perfect candidates for roasting.
A hot oven helps to caramelize the natural sugars in sweet potatoes, and those slightly bitter flavors temper their sweetness. Yum!
Fortunately, roasting sweet potatoes is an easy and straightforward task.
- Make sure the oven racks are set in the center of your oven for the best heat distribution.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, which is on the “hot” range of oven temperatures (350-375 degrees is considered moderate, while 400 degrees is moderately hot).
- Choose a large, shallow baking sheet with a rim — if you don’t already own at least two of these pans, what are you waiting for?!
- Toss the sweet potato slices with olive oil, salt and the spices.
- Slide the pan into the hot oven and set a timer for 25 minutes.
- When the potatoes look brown on the edges and feel tender in the center, they’re done.
- Add the onion and chopped jalapeño toward the end of roasting so that they don’t burn.
More flavor-packed sweet potato and winter squash recipes:
- Chili Lime Sweet Potato Gratin
- Roasted Chipotle Sweet Potato Tacos
- Harissa Butternut Squash Salad
- Roasted Root Vegetables with Chimichurri
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Spicy Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Avocado Crema
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (900 g) sweet potatoes (about 4 medium)
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil, or avocado oil
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 red onion, sliced
- 1/2 fresh jalapeño, sliced
- 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
Avocado Crema:
- 1 small avocado or 1/2 medium avocado, peeled and pitted
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup (50 g) feta cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 jalapeño
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 (220) degrees.
- Peel the sweet potatoes if you like. I usually leave most of the peel on, just peeling off any dark or dirty spots. Slice into 1" pieces.
- Toss the sweet potatoes on a large rimmed baking sheet with the oil, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and salt. Roast 25 minutes, or until tender and golden.
- Add the onion and jalapeño to the pan and stir everything around with a spatula. Roast 5 more minutes. Remove from the oven, add the black beans and cool on the baking sheet.
Avocado Crema
- Put all the ingredients in a blender and puree until very smooth and creamy. Drizzle in 1 or 2 tablespoons of cold water, if needed, to help the process along.
- Serve the salad with a generous dollop of the Avocado Crema on each plate, and sprinkle with cilantro leaves.
Notes
- To make this recipe vegan, simply omit the feta cheese.
- The salad keeps well 3-5 days in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about making cooking fun and doable, with easy to follow tested recipes and incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.