Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Feta and Pesto
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This roasted sweet potato salad recipe is a vibrant and flavourful dish that makes a perfect weeknight dinner.
Spinach and chickpeas are tossed in a (surprisingly simple!) homemade red pesto, served with roasted sweet potatoes, and sprinkled with low fat feta.
Salads don’t get much better than this!
The fresh roasted sweet potatoes make this a warm sweet potato salad, but you can serve it as a cold sweet potato salad the next day!
What’s more, you can make the salad while you roast the potatoes, so the whole thing can be ready in just 35 minutes.
Health Benefits of Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
Although less popular than their pale counterpart, sweet potatoes have a much more distinct flavour and an impressive array of nutritional benefits. They are also just as versatile, if not more so.
Sweet potatoes are rich in antioxidants, low in fat and very fibrous. Fibre promotes gut health as well as aiding weight loss, as high fibre foods keep you feeling fuller for longer.
That high fibre content, as well as the 25g of filling protein per serving of this sweet potato bowl, makes it a great addition to a vegetarian weight loss meal plan.
Sweet potatoes are also high in beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A. Vitamin A helps your immune system function and is vital to maintaining good eye health.
We love sweet potatoes, so we have loads of recipes for you to try if you love them too! Start with this raunchy sweet potato salad, or try these sweet potato burritos for lunch.
Subscribe to get our FREE 7-Day Vegetarian High Protein Meal Plan for Weight Loss
Other healthy components!
In this roasted sweet potato salad feta makes a lovely topping which adds a bit of salty tang as well as some important protein. We stick to low fat feta in order to keep calories down, but you are welcome to use normal feta if you prefer!
Fresh spinach provides 1 of your 5 a day, as well as all the myriad healthy nutrients of that incredible leafy green – iron, vitamin K, magnesium , to name just a handful.
This is also a sweet potato chickpea salad – we added the chickpeas for extra protein and fibre, among many other health benefits.
Perfect pesto!
Pesto is the standout star of this roasted sweet potato salad. Although you may be used to buying pesto in a jar, once you have made homemade pesto, you’ll never look back!
This recipe is an untraditional pesto made of walnuts, sun dried tomato and feta. Traditional pesto often contains parmesan (which usually includes rennet) making it a no-go for vegetarians.
If you want a traditional AND vegetarian pesto, whether green or red, check out our easy homemade basil pesto or this red pesto with sun dried tomatoes.
We hope you enjoy tucking into this roasted sweet potato salad with feta and pesto!
Ingredients
Sweet Potatoes
- 9 oz sweet potato (1 sweet potato)
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp olive oil
Pesto
- 2 tbsp walnuts
- ½ clove garlic
- 2 oz sun-dried tomatoes in oil
- Salt to taste
- ¼ cup water
- 1 oz low fat feta cheese
- 3 oz baby spinach (or greens of choice)
- 1.5 cups chickpeas, cooked (~1 can, 15oz/425g)
To serve
- 1 oz low fat feta cheese (crumbled)
Instructions
Sweet Potatoes
- Preheat the oven to 480F / 250С.
- Place sweet potatoes peeled and cut in half on a baking sheet, rub with ½ tsp salt and a little oil. Bake for 30 minutes. A knife should easily go through them at the end.9 oz sweet potato, Salt to taste, ½ tsp olive oil
Pesto
- While the potatoes are baking, prepare the red pesto. In the bowl of a food processor add walnuts, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, salt, water and feta. Pulse until you have a creamy texture with some little pieces of cheese and walnuts. Reserve until needed.2 tbsp walnuts, ½ clove garlic, 2 oz sun-dried tomatoes in oil, Salt to taste, 1 oz low fat feta cheese, ¼ cup water
- In a salad bowl mix the arugula (or spinach), chickpeas and the pesto. Add a little water if the pesto is too thick to mix nicely with the veggies.3 oz baby spinach, 1.5 cups chickpeas, cooked
- Serve salad with sweet potatoes on the side and finish with remaining feta.1 oz low fat feta cheese
NOTES
Nutrition
Dave Bell
I’m not a foodie, although I do love eating. I believe food should serve us and our goals, not hinder. Taking control and responsibility for what I eat is important to me. Lots of veggie protein is my way forward.
Abril Macías
Creator of this wonderful recipe!
I am a culinary creator and food photographer from Quito, Ecuador. I have a Master’s degree in New Food Thinking and a Bachelor’s degree in Gastronomy, my expertise lies in crafting and capturing creative dishes. Collaborating with websites and blogs worldwide, I develop recipes and bring them to life through captivating photographs.
I dedicate my work in the kitchen and through the lens to explore food from different backgrounds, origins and diets. I would describe my style as “comfort food with a twist”. My goal is to create recipes that are homely, yet attractive, delicious and have something different and exiting to them.
This article has been medically reviewed by James LeBaigue MSc Learn More
James LeBaigue MSc
James has a Masters Degree in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, as well as an Advanced Diploma in Human Nutrition.
He loves combining his scientific knowledge along with food in the real world, and these recipes are the result.
He’s on top of all the latest evidence and guidelines to make sure our nutrition advice on the website is as accurate as it can be.
By day he works as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in a busy NHS GP Practice.
Each recipe is tested and then eaten (much to James’ delight), many times before it is deemed worthy to be published. Bon appetit!
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