Looking to add salads to your fall dinner table? Well, this Roasted Sweet Potato Salad is calling your name. Small pieces of perfectly roasted sweet potatoes served with mixed lettuce leaves, red onion, pecans, dried cranberries and soft cheese. Then it’s topped off with a tangy dressing just before serving!
Roasted sweet potatoes are absolutely delicious in just about anything you’d like to add them to. And this Roasted Sweet Potato Salad is no exception. We often associate salads with The Best Summer Salads, but I believe the right salads have their place all year long. Check out The quick and easy Pecan and Goat Cheese Salad for a quick fall side dish or the delicate Pecan and Goat Cheese Endive Cups for an elegant appetizer.
What is This Salad Like
- Difficulty – This is a pretty easy salad to make. The roasting time is about 1/2 hour and you can prepare the sweet potatoes in advance. Then you can just assemble before serving.
- Taste – This is a light, crisp and fresh fall salad. Full of flavour with the roasted sweet potatoes, soft goats cheese, pecans and a tangy vinaigrette.
- Serving – As a side dish, this salad will easily serve four people. If you would like to serve it as a lunch, I would say it will be two servings. Note, in the recipe card you can easily adjust the servings up or down.
Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes – I used one large sweet potato for this salad.
- Olive oil – Olive oil is used to drizzle over the sweet potatoes.
- Onion – One small red onion is thinly sliced.
- Dried cranberries – Dried cranberries add a nice touch of extra sweetness.
- Pecans – Pecans are a great additions to many dishes and are no exception in this salad.
- Cheese – I mixed crumbled Goat cheese into this salad.
- Lettuce – You can use any kind of mixed lettuce leaves in this salad. I used baby leaf lettuce and arugula.
- Salad dressing – I made a vinaigrette using olive oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, sugar, salt and black pepper.
NOTE, The full recipe and instructions can be found at the end of the post in the recipe card.
Instructions
- Cook sweet potatoes – Preheat oven to 375 degrees f/190 degrees c. Put the sweet potatoes in a baking dish and drizzle over the olive oil. Roast for about 25 minutes, turning 1/2 way through roasting. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
- Toss salad ingredients – In a large salad bowl, add the lettuce leaves, onion, cranberries, pecans and goat cheese. Give a good toss. Add the cooled sweet potatoes and gently toss. Careful not to break up the sweet potato.
- Make salad dressing – Make the dressing by combining the olive oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, sugar, salt and black pepper in a small bowl. Whisk to combine well.
- Add dressing and serve – Pour the dressing over the salad and give a gentle toss just before serving.
Recipe Tips For Fall Salads
- Use nuts and dried fruits – Nuts, like pecans and walnuts make a great addition to seasonal salads this time of year. As well as dried cranberries, apricots and raisins.
- Try seasonal fruit– Apples and pears are in abundance this time of year and they both make a pop of freshness to salads. Just keep in mind not to add them until you are ready to serve so they don’t go brown.
- Using Seasonal vegetables – Squash, pumpkin and sweet potatoes all go well in salads. Just don’t roast them too long or they will go mushy and fall apart in the salad.
Substitutions
- Sweet potatoes – Although sweet potatoes are fantastic, you could easily roast butternut or acorn squash with similar results.
- Goat cheese – Some other alternatives could be feta cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, Havarti or even fresh mozzarella.
- Pecans – A great alternative could be walnuts.
- Dried cranberries – You could use raisins or even dried figs.
Serving
- Serve it as a side dish – This Roasted Sweet Potato Salad would be great alongside a Thanksgiving dinner to go with the many side dishes.
- A great starter – why not serve this up as a starter to a bigger dinner. Great for date night in, Sunday lunches or when you have friends over at the weekend.
- Why not serve it at a brunch – With the holiday season approaching, there are always events. I always believe that salads hold their place at a brunch table. And this fall inspired salad would be a great one to serve during the Thanksgiving weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you toast pecans?
You can toast pecans on the stove top over medium heat. Just give the pan a shake every few minutes and they will be done in about 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can place them on a baking tray in a single layer. Bake them in a 350 degrees f/180 degrees c oven for about 5 – 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t burn.
Can you eat roasted sweet potatoes cold?
The great thing about roasted sweet potatoes is that they can easily be eaten hot, cold or at room temperature.
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Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
Looking to add salads to your fall dinner table? Well, this Roasted Sweet Potato Salad is calling your name. Small pieces of perfectly roasted sweet potatoes served with mixed lettuce leaves, red onion, pecans, dried cranberries and pecans. Then it's topped off with a tangy dressing just before serving!
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
For the salad
- 1 large sweet potatoe peeled washed and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small red onion thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup pecans roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbled
- Mixed lettuce leaves
For the dressing
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees f/190 degrees c. Put the sweet potatoes in a baking dish and drizzle over the olive oil. Roast for about 25 minutes, turning 1/2 way through roasting. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
- In a large salad bowl, add the lettuce leaves, onion, cranberries, pecans and goat cheese. Give a good toss. Add the cooled sweet potatoes and gently toss. Careful not to break up the sweet potato.
- Make the dressing by combining the olive oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, sugar, salt and black pepper in a small bowl. Whisk to combine well.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and give a gentle toss just before serving.
*A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
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