California Roasted Sweet Potato Kale Salad

California Roasted Sweet Potato Kale Saladd with avocado, dried cranberries, sweet and sour pistachios, and a garlicky, tahini-based vinaigrette. This flavor-packed vegan sweet potato kale salad is versatile and simple to add extra protein to! The ideal weekday lunch or dinner packed with vegetables.

WHOA. Let me just say this before we go into all the adverbs and adjectives about this salad. You MUST create this! Obsessed is an understatement; completely and utterly obsessed.

I previously shared this salad and felt compelled to do so once more. This dish was influenced by a favorite Chicago takeout joint's outstanding kale salad. Simply said, I'm addicted. There are roasted sweet potatoes, crisp wasabi peas (or you can substitute roasted chickpeas! ), sweet cranberries, creamy avocado, and my own touch: sweet and smoky toasted pistachios in addition to the most absurdly delicious garlic tahini dressing.

This sweet potato kale salad sounds amazing, doesn't it? Well, create this salad and have faith in your girl. I constantly yearn for it. It goes well alone or with a robust meal like chicken or salmon. Bonus: It continues to taste good after many days in the fridge! I'm eager to hear your opinions.

What you’ll need to make this sweet potato kale salad

Prepare to be smitten by the tastes and textures of this vegan kale sweet potato salad. Every bite improves on the last, from the creamy dressing to the soft sweet potatoes and crunch from the pistachios. What you'll need to make it is as follows:

• To prepare the dressing, combine the tahini, garlic powder, lemon juice, maple syrup, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper.
• You'll need a sizable sweet potato, olive oil for roasting it, as well as a lot of kale, for the salad foundation. In this dish, we prefer to use Tuscan kale.
• Pistachios: I enjoy toasting these pistachios with maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and a little sea salt to give them flavor.
• Finish it up with additional toppings like avocado, wasabi peas, and dried cranberries for extra crunch.

Customize your salad

In addition to being inherently vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo-friendly, this roasted sweet potato kale salad is also simple to modify with any additional vegetables or pantry staples you may have on hand. What I can advise is this:

• Replace the sweet potato with butternut squash to mix up the produce.
• If you don't have tahini, use my feta yogurt dressing or even my greek yogurt ranch if you want to try a different dressing. The tahini dressing, though, is a GAME CHANGER.
• Replace the cranberries with something sweeter like chopped dates, raisins, dried cherries, or even apple slices.
• Change the crunch: out of wasabi peas and/or pistachios? Try roasting salted chickpeas instead, or make sweet & spicy cashews!
• To keep the salad paleo, feel free to skip the wasabi peas as well.

Tips for making salads with kale

• You should handle kale slightly differently than, instance, spinach leaves since it is more robust and dense.
• You prevent the bites from becoming too big, make sure you chop it extremely finely.
• First, add the dressing to the kale alone, then combine everything thoroughly. Even better, "massage" the dressing into the kale with your hands to ensure that it is evenly distributed.
• Allow it to marinade! Yes, in order for the dressed kale to really absorb the flavor, you should wait at least 15 minutes before adding the other toppings. It completely alters everything.
  

California Roasted Sweet Potato Kale Salad Ingredients

For the dressing:

• ¼ cup tahini
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
• ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• Lots of freshly ground black pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons warm water, to thin the dressing

For the salad:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium to large sweet potato, cut into ½ inch cubes (or 2 cups cubed sweet potato)
• 1 bunch of Tuscan kale, stems removed and very finely chopped (or 8-10 cups chopped kale)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 avocado, sliced or diced
• ½ cup wasabi peas* (or roasted salted chickpeas), for crunch

For the sweet and spicy pistachios:

• ½ cup shelled roasted pistachios
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Sprinkle of sea salt

How to make this sweet potato kale salad

1. Your sweet potatoes in the oven. Roast the sweet potato cubes after brushing them with a little olive oil.
2. Construct the dressing. The tahini dressing components can be whisked together while the sweet potatoes are cooking.
3. the kale is massaged. Using my advice from above, add the dressing to your greens and combine everything thoroughly!
4. Add your garnishes. Add the other ingredients, excluding the pistachios, and toss gently.
5. The pistachios need some spice. The pistachios will next be toasted with the maple syrup, cayenne, and sea salt until aromatic, let to cool, and then added to the salad along with the other ingredients.

Make this sweet potato kale salad ahead of time

Feel free to prepare the dressing, roast the sweet potato, chop the kale, and even make the pistachios in advance if you want to meal prep this salad or serve it later. While the remaining ingredients can be kept at room temperature until it's time to toss everything together and serve, the kale, dressing, and sweet potato cubes should be refrigerated.

Having said that, if you like to prepare the salad ahead of time, you can do so; it will still taste fantastic. Simply leaving out the avocado until you are ready to serve is what I advise.