Ready within one hour, this sweet potato kale salad with crispy chickpeas and pickled red onion is the perfect dinner salad. Itโs made with simple ingredients, like chopped kale, sweet potatoes, canned chickpeas, red onion, spices, lemon juice, chopped pistachios, and olive oil. This vegan salad requires a bit of roasting time in the oven for the sweet potatoes and chickpeas! Filled with zesty flavors, satiating legumes, nourishing veggies, plus a kick from a homemade creamy and spicy tahini ranch dressing, this easy, chopped kale salad will satisfy all types of eaters.
Hereโs a recipe that I make for dinner all the time, so itโs definitely met my testing criteria! This kale and sweet potato salad recipe looks long and intimidating, but it all comes together with simple methods. Iโve included my recipe for pickled red onions in this recipe as well. I make these every weekend without fail. Theyโre the perfect flavor punch to add to salads, sandwiches, veggie burgers, and bowls.
If youโve followed my site for a while, you already know my opinion on salads like this. Iโm enthusiastic to say the least! I truly think that raw kale is great in salads. One thing I encourage you to do (and I lay it out in the recipe) is to massage the chopped kale leaves with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and something acidic. After massaging, the kale leaves will be tender and will have a milder, less bitter taste as well.ย
The dressing here is a spicy tahini ranch that you simply whisk up in a bowl. You could use some of this as part of the pre-dressing โmassageโ of the kale.
I hope that you love this one! Juxtaposing textures of crunchy, creamy, and tender really do it for me in a dinner salad. Iโd say these characteristics are essential actually. Fans of this one may also like my Kale Power Salad with Spicy Almond Dressing.
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Kale Sweet Potato Salad with Crispy Chickpeas, Pickled Red Onion & Spicy Tahini Ranch
Ingredients
Pickled Red Onions (makes extra)
- 1 large red onion, cut into thin half moons
- 1 cup water
- โ cup white vinegar
- ยผ cup cane sugar
- 2 tablespoons salt
Sweet Potatoes & Crispy Chickpeas
- 2 medium sweet potatoes (about 500 grams), peeled and diced into 2-inch pieces
- 1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (1 ยฝ cups cooked chickpeas)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Spicy Tahini Ranch
- โ cup tahini
- 1 ยฝ tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 ยฝ tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar
- 1-2 tablespoons hot sauce
- ยฝ teaspoon Tamari
- ยฝ teaspoon onion powder
- ยฝ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- ยผ โ โ cup cold water
Salad Assembly
- 6 cups chopped kale, lightly packed
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- ยผ cup shelled and salted pistachios, chopped
Notes
- Pickled red onions should, at minimum, be made the day before!
- Cubes of butternut squash would work nicely in place of the sweet potato here.
- Raw cashew butter substitutes well for tahini.
- I personally prefer crispy chickpeas made in the air fryer, but realize that not everyone has this piece of equipment. If you do and want to try it out, set your air fryer to 390 and coat the chickpeas as stated below in oil and seasonings. Then air fry for 10-12 minutes, shaking the basket every 4-5 minutes.
Instructions
- Make the pickled red onions (the day before!). Pack the red onion slices into a jar thatโs big enough to hold them all plus all of the liquid. In a small saucepan, combine the water, white vinegar, cane sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from the heat and pour over the onions in the jar. Let the onions and liquid cool to room temperature before putting a lid on top and placing in the refrigerator. They keep for about 2 weeks.
- Make the salad. Preheat the oven to 425ยฐF and set out 2 baking sheets.
- Place the sweet potatoes on one baking sheet and the chickpeas on the other. In a small bowl, stir together the garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. Sprinkle this spice mixture over both the sweet potatoes and chickpeas, dividing it in half. Drizzle both the sweet potatoes and chickpeas with 2 tablespoons of olive oil each. Season both with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
- Slide both baking sheets into the oven. Roast chickpeas until crispy and golden, about 30 minutes. Pop in to shake the baking sheet here and there. Roast the sweet potatoes until golden brown and soft, about 35-40 minutes.
- While sweet potatoes and chickpeas are roasting, make the spicy tahini ranch. In a medium bowl, combine the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, agave, hot sauce, Tamari, onion powder, garlic powder, dill, chives, salt, pepper, and ยผ cup water. Slowly whisk to combine. Speed up your whisking once everything is unified and creamy. If you need more water to loosen up the dressing, add it by the tablespoon and whisk it in. Set aside.
- Assemble the salad. Toss the kale into a large bowl, and add the lemon juice, olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Massage the kale until slightly softened. Top the kale with the roasted sweet potatoes and chickpeas, big drizzles of the tahini ranch, some pickled red onions, and the chopped pistachios. Enjoy!
I just want to thank you for another fantastic recipe! I ordered your book & have been cooking my way through your book/website. My non-vegan husband is a huge fan too :) We added brown rice & air fried tofu. It was the perfect reset dinner for a Monday. Thanks again!
Absolutely delicious! Iโve done it several times times and itโs a constant pleaser. The sauce, wow! As always, the combo of flavours and textures come together but the sauce is so good on its own, pour it on any food
This is so tasty! I was worried about the pickled onions because the vinegar and salt was so strong but as you instructed, I made it the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight โ they were perfect!
I also followed your advice and put the chickpeas in the air fryer, it made such a difference.
I did add 2TBS of nutritional yeast to the dressing, it felt like it needed something, the nutritional yeast worked really well.
I will make this again, delicious.
absolutely fantastic, my family is very picky with salads & this one knocked it out the park! amazing textures & flavors :D everyoneโs gotta try this
I donโt even like kale or sweet potato but in an effort to get my vitamins, I gave this a shot. Holy tahini is this fantastic!
I accidentally used 2 lemons in the dressing so I used a mandarin orange instead on the kale & it worked great. I was afraid of using 2 tbsp of hot sauce- 1 is nice but I can see bumping it up.
Thank you for this dressing recipe! So good.
Hi there yummy recipe. Can we roast the chick peas and sweet potatoes a day before serving? Also I was wondering if citrus vinaigrette ( orange plus lemon will pair well instead of tahini dressing
Delicious! Simple to prepare, thank you so much!!
Thank you โ this is so good.
While the load of ingredients is a bit intimidating first โ after all its really easy. And quick. and very tasty โฆ
Thank you so much jan! Really glad that you enjoyed the salad :)
-L
I never comment on a recipe but this was so delicious!!! Thanks for this great and easy salad!
Iโm so glad that you enjoyed it, Eileen! Thanks for your comment and review :)
-L
Loved this salad!! Tons of flavor and perfect for chilly weather with the spicy flavors and warm potatoes/chickpeas.
This was great! The recipe made enough pickled onions and tahini ranch for two batches of the kale/sweet potato/chickpea mixture.
I cannot stress enough how DELICIOUS this was! I used sambal oelek as the hot sauce in the dressing and it was so good. Perfect for meal prep. Will definitely make again!
Apologies if I missed it somewhere, but whatโs a good temperature for the sweet potatoes + chickpeas?
Hi AMC,
Itโs 425 F and should be listed in step 2 of the recipe!
-L
2โณ pieces of sweet potato???
Hi Ruth,
Dicing the sweet potato into roughly 2-inch pieces is great. It does not have to be precise. Unless you needed clarification with something else?
-L
This looks wonderful! Do you have a preferred oven temp for the roasting?
Hi Fran! It is at 425 Fahrenheit :)
-L
Yummm! Iโm not a salad person at all, but Iโm a big fan of yours. Canโt wait to try this one!