Sweet potato quinoa salad

This delicious and easy to make quinoa sweet potato salad makes a great side dish for the fall and winter season. Also perfect to serve for any holiday party, or on its own as a light lunch or dinner. It is loaded with flavor from the roasted sweet potatoes and red pepper. For another tasty sweet potato side dish, try this Crispy roasted sweet potatoes recipe.

For another great fall salad, try this Quinoa salad with pumpkin or this Roasted sweet potato lentil salad.

Ingredients

This quinoa salad with sweet potatoes is easy to make with just a handful f healthy ingredients, listed below. 
For the full ingredient measurements, scroll down to view the recipe card at the bottom of the page.

Salad

• Sweet potato, peeled and cut in ½ inch cubes.
• Red bell pepper, chopped. Or any colour bell pepper of choice.
• Olive oil, or other neutral tasting oil like avocado oil.
• Spices, sea salt, dried thyme, course ground black pepper and chili flakes for a little spice (optional)
• Quinoa, uncooked. Use white or any colour of choice.
• Baby spinach, washed and dried.
• Feta cheese, crumbled.
• Walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped. For an allergy friendly alternative, use toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds instead of the nuts.
• Red onion, thinly sliced

Dressing

• Olive oil, or other neutral tasting oil like avocado oil.
• Garlic, minced, just a little hint of garlic tastes great in this lemon vinaigrette dressing.
• Honey, or maple syrup for a little sweetness to balance out the acidity of the lemon juice and mustard.
• Dijon mustard
• Lemon juice
• Sea salt
• Ground black pepper, to taste

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

This healthy sweet potato and quinoa salad is really easy to make. Follow the instruction below with step-by-step photos. For the full written instructions, see the recipe card at the bottom.

1. Step 1: Toss the sweet potato and chopped red bell pepper with the olive oil, corn starch and spices.

2. Step 2: Bake, stirring half way. Let cool down completely before adding to the salad.

Gently toss together the salad to serve. Optional is to top it with some feta cheese, walnuts and chopped parsley.

Hint: This Sweet potato quinoa salad has a light and zesty vinaigrette style dressing. If you like a lot of dressing, I recommend that you double the recipe for the dressing. 

A great way to serve this salad is with some freshly baked bread like this Cranberry Walnut Bread or this No knead olive bread.

Substitutions and Variations

• Protein – For a boost in protein, add some canned beans like chickpeas or cannellini beans, or some cooked lentils also tastes great!
• Spicy – This roasted sweet potato quinoa salad has a little chili flakes. For a spicy salad, top with some extra hot chill flakes or even sliced fresh chili to taste.
• Vegan – to make this salad vegan, replace the honey with maple syrup and use a vegan feta cheese alternative.
• Herbs – Add some chopped fresh herbs like parsley or fresh thyme.
• Grains – Instead of the quinoa, use some cooked rice, couscous, farro, or barley for this quinoa and sweet potato salad.
• Nuts – The walnuts can be replaced with pecans or nuts of choice. For an allergy friendly salad, use toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds instead of the nuts.
• Greens – Instead of the baby spinach, make this a kale sweet potato quinoa salad by adding some washed and chopped kale.

For another easy to make side salad, check out this Apple cranberry quinoa salad.

Storage

This salad tastes best when served straight away. Once mixed with the lemon dressing, the spinach will start to wilt. If you would like to prep this ahead of time, cook the quinoa, roast the sweet potato and make the dressing but wait with assembling the salad and adding the dressing until ready to serve. 

Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. The spinach will start to wilt a little, but it still tastes great. Always smell and taste any leftovers before eating, to make sure they are fresh.

More sweet potato recipes

Salad recipes

Soup

Serve this salad with a side of warming soup:

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Print

Sweet potato quinoa salad

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

This Sweet potato quinoa salad is healthy, nourishing and packed with flavor. Makes a great side dish, or serve it as a light, lunch or dinner.

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Helena

Ingredients

Roasted vegetables

• 500 g sweet potato peeled and cut in ½ inch cubes
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ⅛ teaspoon chili flakes optional
• ½ cup quinoa uncooked
• 100 g baby spinach
• 100 g feta cheese crumbled
• ⅓ cup walnuts toasted and roughly chopped
• ½ red onion thinly sliced

Dressing

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (390F)

2. Toss the sweet potato and chopped red bell pepper with the olive oil, corn starch and spices. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring half way. Let cool down completely before adding to the salad.

3. While the vegetables are in the oven, cook quinoa. Follow the package instructions and let cool to room temperature.

Dressing

1. In a small bowl, stir together the ingredients for the dressing and set aside. Optional, I like to add the red onion to the dressing to marinade, it makes it a little less sharp.

2. To a large salad bowl, add the baby spinach, quinoa, roasted sweet potato and bell pepper. Top with the crumbled feta cheese, red onion, walnuts and drizzle with the lemon dressing. Gently toss to serve.

3. Serve with some crusty bread and enjoy!