This healthy Sweet Potato Salad with avocado combines sweet, creamy, warm, and cold elements and can be enjoyed warm or cold. It’s a great vegetarian meal or side dish.
Sweet Potato Salad
If you’re looking for a dish that’s not only packed with flavor but also loaded with nutrients, this Sweet Potato Avocado Salad is the way to go. It combines roasted sweet potatoes with creamy avocado and baby arugula and works well as a side or a meatless main dish. Roasting the sweet potatoes brings out their natural sweetness and gives them a slightly caramelized exterior that contrasts beautifully with the avocado. To enhance their flavor, I toss the sweet potatoes in olive oil, salt, and paprika before roasting. Great for lunch or a light dinner. For more hearty salads, try my Avocado Quinoa Salad, Kale Salad or Green Goddess Potato Salad with baby red potatoes.
Why You’ll Love This Sweet Potato Salad Recipe
The first time I tried warm sweet potatoes tossed with vinegar in this Sweet Potato Tandoori Salad, I fell in love and have been hooked ever since! There’s something about the sweet, salty, acidic combination that just works so well. Here’s more reasons to love this vegetarian salad!
- Nutritious: Sweet potatoes, arugula, and avocado are all packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals, making this colorful salad an excellent way to get your daily dose of veggies.
- Easy to Prepare: It’s quick and simple to make and perfect for meal prep, ensuring you have a delicious option ready whenever you’re hungry.
- Dietary Restrictions: It’s high-fiber, vegetarian, vegan, gluten- free, Weight Watchers-friendly, dairy-free, and anti-inflammatory.
If you make this healthy sweet potato salad recipe, I would love to see it. Tag me in your photos or videos on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook!
What You’ll Need
This salad combines nutrient-rich vegetables with an apple cider vinaigrette, here’s the ingredients: (See the complete recipe with measurements in the recipe card below.)
- Sweet Potatoes: Peel and chop sweet potatoes into small cubes.
- Olive Oil: Coat the potatoes in olive oil before roasting them.
- Seasoning: Sweet paprika, garlic powder, kosher salt, black pepper
- Red Onion adds a little crunch.
- Arugula: Peppery arugula complements the sweetness of the potatoes.
- Avocado adds a creamy texture and heart-healthy fats.
- Sweet Potato Salad Dressing: Olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, cumin
How to Make Sweet Potato Salad
Roast the sweet potatoes, make the dressing, and toss everything together for this easy sweet potato avocado salad recipe. The recipe card at the bottom has the complete instructions.
- Season the Sweet Potatoes: Combine the 4 spices in a small bowl. Drizzle the potatoes with oil and season them with the spice mix.
- Roast The Sweet Potatoes: Bake the potatoes for about 30 minutes at 400°F, tossing halfway through.
- Make the Dressing: Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients in a large bowl and add the red onions.
- Make the Salad: Add the hot sweet potatoes to the dressing and let cool for at least 5 minutes. Once cool, add the arugula and toss with olive oil and salt.
- Add the Avocado: Divide the salad between 4 bowls, add more salt and pepper if needed, and top each with avocado.
Variations
- Potatoes: Substitute butternut squash.
- Onions: Replace red onions with shallots or scallions.
- Greens: Swap arugula with spinach.
- Paprika: Smoked paprika will also work if you don’t have sweet.
- Vinegar: Sub white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar.
- Sweetener: Use maple syrup or agave instead of honey.
- Cheese: Add goat or feta cheese.
Serving Suggestions
Sweet potato avocado salad is perfect for a light lunch, barbecue, or a side dish with grilled meats or roasted chicken. If you’re serving it at a party or want another side to round out your meal, cornbread muffins, veggie kabobs, or broccoli salad would be good options.
Storage
- Meal Prep: This salad holds up well as leftovers, making it great for meal prep. Just be sure to add the avocado right before serving to prevent it from browning.
- Refrigerator: Store it in an airtight container for 3 days. Eat it cold or let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes to come to room temperature.
More Sweet Potato Recipes You’ll Love
- Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
- Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Baked Sweet Potatoes
- Roasted Sweet Potato Black Bean Bowls
Sweet Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Sweet Potatoes:
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups, 20 ounces total)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, and black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup red onion, diced
- 4 cups baby arugula
- 4 ounces Haas avocado, cubed
For the salad dressing:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 teaspoon
- 1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey, or agave for vegan
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus 1/8th teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon cumin
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Place the sweet potato cubes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss. In a small bowl, stir together the paprika, garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper.
- Sprinkle the spice mixture over the potatoes and toss to combine. Bake 13-15 minutes, toss then bake for additional 13-15 minutes, or until tender.
- While the sweet potato is cooking, mix the salad dressing together in a large bowl and add the onions.
- Remove the roasted sweet potatoes from the oven and while still hot, toss them into the large bowl with the salad dressing, then let them cool at least 5 minutes.
- Once cool, add the arugula, 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1/8 teaspoon salt and toss well.
- Divide 4 bowls, adjust salt and pepper to taste then top with 1 ounce avocado in each bowl.
Really great salad – no surprise, you never disappoint!! At first glance the ingredients look lengthy but the salad comes together simply. Loved it, thank you!
This salad was so delicious and perfect for meal prepping lunches. The sweet potatoes and arugula were a nice combo. I added feta cheese and use Gina’s air fryer chick peas (seasoned with z’ater seasoning) to give some texture and crunch. Can’t wait for lunch tomorrow!!
IMO, This is ALL the things….relatively simple to prepare, not terribly time consuming, super healthy, and absolutely, POSITIVELY delicious!! a little sweet, a little nutty, savory, delightful… and PRETTY too!! GREAT for a side or a brunch or any meal! will make again and again
So delicious and simple to make. This will be a lunch staple from here on in. Serve with chicken breast for protein.
Really enjoyed this salad, but I left the onions out. Definitely a possibility for the next pot-luck.
I used a spring mix and substituted hot honey. Turned out great, didn’t have to modify any measurements
So good! This is such a simple salad. I made it with bbq chicken wings.
Wasn’t very tasty. However this is a first and I have made probably 100 recipes.
I’m actually surprised at how flavorful this is. I love finding new sweet potatoes recipes, I keep trying to add them more to our weekly meals. This was super easy and has a wonderful flavor.
I used all as above other than my arugula had baby spinach too and I also added some feta because I had a little left over from another meal.
Served with thin cut chicken breasts I grilled on the cuisnart.
Really love the idea of shrimp someone mentioned, going to do that next!
Good base but seemed really salty. If I make it again, I would probably cut back on the salt in the dressing.
Just had this salad for lunch and it was so good! I added some feta per the variations listed above and tossed with olive oil and balsamic instead of making the dressing. Highly recommend!
The salad components are all good, but the dressing was a “miss” for me. Didn’t like the cumin and the only other thing I could taste was the olive oil. Maybe the measurements are off? I will make this again, but with a different dressing.
Amazing! Going to add a little bacon on top next time. The whole family ate it!
Perfect!
This was excellent, I added shrimp and my husband loved it.😊
This was the perfect side dish to some chicken breasts I planned for dinner tonight and just happened to see it in my feed! I used the air fryer to cook the sweet potatoes. So easy. Very tasty will definitely do this again.
This looks like a delicious way to eat sweet potatoes in a salad. Pauline (Happy Retirees Kitchen).
I Love this salad
Doing September Whole30 for September- (need to get my self back in control after summer!)
I eat it without dressing for breakfast- perfect for start you day and so tasty with avocado
(I am not egg eater)