Get ready to convert a salad hater with this gorgeous sweet potato salad. Just throw your sweet potatoes into the oven, then prep everything else while they’re roasting. It’s sweet, salty, creamy, crunchy and PACKED with so much flavour, guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser.
While I 100% crave traditional comfort food in the colder months, I really do LOVE a hearty salad. This isn’t a stereotypical assortment of leaves, this is filling, loaded with flavour, texture, and colours and is destined to become a family favourite.
Salads often get a bad rap for being boring, but this one is FAR from that. It’s got a bit of everything – sweetness from the sweet potatoes and cranberries, saltiness from the bacon and feta, freshness from the spinach and sage, creaminess from the feta (and the sweet potatoes) and crunch from the salted honey pumpkin seeds. My go-to zesty miso honey dressing ties it all together beautifully.
While it’s filling enough to enjoy alone and great for meal prep, it’s fabulous as part of a feasting spread too (and wonderful for the holiday season).
Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes. Regular orange sweet potatoes are what I tend to go for as they’re what I can easily pick up at the store, but white or even purple sweet potatoes would be wonderful too. Or, you could use butternut squash.
- Bacon. Free-range, streaky bacon is best here, but you could use back bacon if you like, or even diced chorizo.
- Dried cranberries. This makes the salad a fab festive option, but you could use raisins, sultanas or dried apricots instead if you like.
- Spinach. I prefer to use baby leaf spinach as it’s easier to mix through the salad (and eat) plus it tends not to have long stems.
- Feta. Go for a creamy feta if you can, I find it mixes in with the salad better.
- Pumpkin seeds. I LOVE using these for colour and crunch, but you could use sunflower seeds or even nuts like pecans, almonds or cashews.
- Sage. Swap this lovely festive herb for flat-leaf parsley, basil, thyme or chives if you like.
You’ll need white miso paste, honey, olive oil, lemon juice and a couple of garlic cloves for the dressing. You could swap the miso for Dijon mustard if you like, just make sure you add a pinch of salt if you do to replace the salt from the miso.
How to make it
Dice your sweet potatoes, toss with olive oil, salt and paprika and roast until lovely and charred around the edges.
While the sweet potato is in the oven, cook your crispy bacon, make the salted honey pumpkin seeds, mix the miso dressing and get all the other ingredients ready.
Add the sweet potato, bacon, dried cranberries, feta, spinach, sage and half the pumpkin seeds to a large bowl. Pour over the dressing, toss to combine, then scatter over the rest of the pumpkin seeds to serve.
Got a question?
You can prepare everything in advance – you can even mix everything EXCEPT the spinach leaves – and then just mix through the spinach before you serve. Everything will keep well in the fridge for 5 days, but the spinach will soften considerably, which is why I always recommend mixing it at the last minute if you’re entertaining.
Yes, you can. Just skip the bacon!
While this is hearty enough to be enjoyed on its own, it’s fab as part of a wider spread. Pair it with juicy herb roast chicken, miso grilled chicken or crispy pork belly, no-peel roast potatoes, tomato and grilled peach salad, rainbow chopped salad or green goddess salad for a lovely, colourful spread (this would also be an excellent Christmas menu!)
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Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Feta and Bacon
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Get ready to convert a salad hater with this gorgeous sweet potato salad. Just throw your sweet potatoes into the oven, then prep everything else while they’re roasting. It’s sweet, salty, creamy, crunchy and PACKED with so much flavour, guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser.
Ingredients
For the salad –
- 500g/1lb sweet potatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 6 slices of streaky bacon
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 50g/2oz feta cheese
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 200g/7oz baby spinach leaves
- A handful of sage leaves, chopped
For the dressing –
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon miso paste
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
Instructions
- Roast the sweet potatoes. Heat your oven to 200C/390F fan and line an oven tray with baking paper. Chop your sweet potatoes into bite-sized chunks, then arrange on the oven tray. Drizzle with olive oil, paprika and 1 teaspoon of salt, then toss to combine well. Spread the sweet potato chunks onto one layer (this will ensure they roast evenly), then pop into the oven and roast for about 30 minutes, until they’re charred around the edges and soft in the middle (pierce one with a knife to check).
- Cook the bacon. Add the diced bacon to a dry pan and set it over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for about five minutes, until it’s super crispy. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside (don’t discard the fat in the pan – it adds so much flavour to the salad).
- Make the salted honey pumpkin seeds. Place a piece of baking paper onto a small plate (you’ll use this to crisp up the seeds). Give the pan a quick wipe, then add the pumpkin seeds and set it over low heat. Toast the seeds, stirring constantly, for another couple of minutes until they start to pop and smell ‘toasty’. At this point, add 2 teaspoons of honey and scatter over a teaspoon of salt. Stir them through the pumpkin seeds as the honey bubbles up, then transfer to the lined plate to crisp up. PRO TIP: It’s important you do line the plate because the seeds WILL stick to it if you don’t (I have discovered this the hard way!)
- Mix the dressing. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of miso paste, 2 teaspoons of honey and 2 crushed garlic cloves to a small bowl, or a jar with a lid. Use a fork to mix really well into a cohesive sauce. If you’re using a jar with a lid, you can just give it a good shake.
- Assemble the salad. Add the roasted sweet potatoes, spinach leaves, feta, crispy bacon, dried cranberries, chopped sage and half the crispy pumpkin seeds to a large mixing bowl. Pour the dressing all over the salad, then toss everything well to combine. Transfer to a serving bowl or platter, then scatter over the remaining pumpkin seeds to serve.
Notes
PREP AHEAD: The salad will keep well for 5 days, stored in the fridge. If you’re entertaining, wait to mix the spinach through the salad until you serve – the leaves can wilt and lose some crunch the longer they sit in the dressing. You can roast the sweet potatoes and cook the bacon 5 days in advance, and the salted honey pumpkin seeds will keep well for a week in a container at room temperature.
INGREDIENT NOTES: You can play around with the ingredients, based on what you have and what you like. Swap the dried cranberries with apricots, raisins or sultanas, swap the bacon for chorizo (or leave it out for a vegetarian version), use flat-leaf parsley, chives, basil or thyme instead of sage, or swap feta for goat’s cheese or Boursin. If you can’t find miso paste, you can use Dijon mustard in the dressing, but make sure to add a pinch of salt if you do.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS: While the salad is hearty enough to enjoy by itself, it’s great as part of a wider spread (and perfect for the holiday season). Pair it with crispy pork belly, juicy roast chicken or harissa chicken, skin on roast potatoes, green goddess salad, rainbow chopped salad, stuffing balls and garlic butter dinner rolls for a fabulous Christmas spread.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 30
- Category: salads
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: american
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 350g
- Calories: 296
- Sugar: 5.5g
- Sodium: 1244mg
- Fat: 15.9g
- Saturated Fat: 4.5g
- Carbohydrates: 31.9g
- Fiber: 5.1g
- Protein: 8.3g
- Cholesterol: 7mg
Keywords: sweet potato salad
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