Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Arugula is a savory salad dressed with a garlic vinaigrette and crumbled organic feta cheese. The salad is easy to make and can be enjoyed on its own or served as your salad course.
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This Arugula Sweet Potato Salad pairs well with our recipe for Pan Seared Chicken Breasts. Chicken Breasts are marinated in oil and spices and "grilled" on the stovetop in a cast-iron grill pan. You get the grill lines on the chicken without going outdoors! Just slice up the chicken and serve with your salad. It makes a great big-bowl meal.
What You Need
Sweet potatoes are the star of this dish. Not to be confused with yams, which are lighter in color, sweet potatoes are available year-round, with their peak season in late summer through mid-fall. They are packed with Vitamin A and fiber, making them not only delicious but healthy too!
At the market, look for firm sweet potatoes that are heavy for their size. If they feel too light, they could be old and dehydrating. They should have smooth skin and should not be dented or have any soft spots.
Fresh Ingredients
- Sweet Potatoes
- Baby Arugula
- Romaine Lettuce (inner light green leaves)
- Fresh Basil Leaves
- Red Onion
- Feta Cheese
- Sliced Almonds
Pantry Items
- Olive oil
- Raw garlic
- Apple cider vinegar (red wine vinegar can be substituted)
- Dijon mustard
- Lemon juice
- Honey
- Salt
- Black Pepper
See recipe card for quantities.
How To Make It
Sweet potatoes are one of our favorite vegetables. When you cube and roast sweet potatoes, they caramelize and get a little crispy. Use this foolproof method to get perfectly roasted sweet potatoes every time.
- Peel potatoes. Slice into 1" rounds. Cut each round into 4 pieces.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Spread out potatoes on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Roast on the center rack of your oven at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until tender.
- Whisk together the vinaigrette. Toss salad greens, onions, roasted potatoes, and feta, with 2 tablespoons of vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper. Toss and serve.
Hint: Use a sheet of parchment paper to roast the sweet potatoes. The paper creates a barrier between your food and your aluminum pan.
How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar Vinaigrette with Honey
To make the vinaigrette, whisk the apple cider vinegar, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Add the oil in a steady stream and whisk until emulsified.
If you are out of fresh garlic, use ½ teaspoon of garlic powder.
The dressing will last for a week in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Substitutions
Popular in Italian dishes, arugula, also known as rocket, has a peppery taste. In this salad, I am using baby arugula, which is sold in big clear boxes in your grocer's produce section. If you like milder lettuce, try Green Leaf, Red Leaf, or Boston lettuce in place of the arugula.
In place of almonds, try crushed or whole pecans, walnuts, or pine nuts.
You can substitute fresh goat cheese or ricotta for feta cheese. Because they are both very soft cheeses, scatter them on top of the assembled salad instead of mixing it in with the greens and dressing.
In place of sweet potatoes, you can experiment with cubed butternut or acorn squash.
Short on Time? Skip the sweet potatoes!
To further simplify, peel and cube 2 raw apples (any variety) in place of the roasted potatoes. It will taste great, and you'll save 30 minutes!
The main thing is to purchase fresh ingredients to get the maximum nutrition from the fresh produce.
Variations
To spice this recipe up a bit, you can add chopped jalapeno peppers or red pepper flakes.
For your kids, use all Romaine lettuce. You can even use iceberg lettuce. It is a lot more subtle than the peppery taste of arugula.
For the Kaufmann Phase One diet, omit the feta cheese and the honey in the vinaigrette. The recipe, as is, is good for the Phase Two Diet.
Equipment
- Cutting board
- Sharp 10 or 12-inch knife
- Rimmed baking sheet. I use a half-sheet pan.
- Parchment paper
- Tongs
- Mixing bowl
- Salad Bowl
- Wire whisk or blender
How to Store Your Salad
This salad will keep in the fridge for about a day if you have dressed it. Without the dressing, you'll get about 2 days.
Like most things I make for dinner, my dinner becomes my breakfast or lunch the next day with a sunny-side egg, or two, on top.
Is Sweet Potato Salad Good For You?
Arugula is a leafy green cruciferous vegetable that is low in calories, fat, and sodium. Arugula is a powerful antioxidant.
Roasted Sweet Potato and Arugula Salad is a gold mine of nutrition. Sweet potatoes are a great source of Vitamin A, fiber, beta-carotene, and lycopene.
The arugula plant is known to be an excellent source of anticancer phytochemicals that fight free radical damage and slow the aging process. Many of arugula's benefits are due to its generous portions of vital nutrients — such as vitamin K, vitamin A and folate.
DR. JOSH AXE
FAQ
No, one medium-sized sweet potato has about 20 carbohydrates and 3 grams of fiber. If you're counting carbs, you can swap the sweet potato in this recipe with cauliflower, which has about 2 net carbs.
There are 450 calories in this Arugula Salad.
Even though sweet potatoes have edible skin I always peel them, especially if they're not organic.
Check out our Recipe Index for a full listing of all of our quick and easy meal ideas. Our recipes are made fresh with unprocessed ingredients with your good health in mind.
"📖 Recipe"
Roasted Sweet Potato and Arugula Salad
Equipment
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Mixing Bowl
- Tongs
- 1 Salad Bowl
- Half-Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper
- 1 Wire whisk
Ingredients
FOR THE SWEET POTATOES
- 1 pound sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
FOR THE SALAD
- 3 cups baby arugula
- 3 cups Romaine lettuce ,tender inner leaves from 1 head, torn or cut into bite size pieces
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves ,torn into bite size pieces
- ⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion ,about one quarter of a big red onion
- ¼ cup feta cheese ,look for organic cheese in a block, no pre-crumbled
- 3 tablespoons sliced almonds
FOR THE DRESSING
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic ,2-3 cloves
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
TO ROAST THE SWEET POTATOES
- Peel potatoes. Slice into 1" rounds. Cut each round into 4 pieces.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Spread out potatoes on a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Roast on the center rack of your oven at 400 degrees 30 to 40 minutes until tender. Remove pan from the oven to let cool.
FOR THE VINAIGRETTE
- While the potatoes are roasting, whisk the apple cider vinegar, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, honey and pepper in a mixing bowl. Add the oil in a steady stream and whisk until emulsified. Set aside until ready to use. (The dressing can be made a day in advance.)
FOR THE SALAD
- In a large salad bowl, toss arugula, lettuce, onions, sweet potatoes, feta cheese, and sliced almonds with 2 tablespoons of dressing. Finish with a flurry of freshly ground black pepper and salt.
- Serve and pass extra dressing at the table.
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