A colourful, fibre packed bowl full of autumn flavours, this Sweet Potato Grape Salad with Goats Cheese is a fantastic way to get all of your 5-a-day and then some in one delicious meal. Perfect to surprise your family and friends with a beautiful meal, all while staying on path to weight loss.
The Ingredients
Sweet Potato Grape Salad with Goats Cheese is one of those salads that I can’t adequately describe in such a short title, as there is so much going on. Crispy roasted sweet potatoes. Juicy thyme roasted grapes. Beets marinated in thyme and balsamic. Lots of crunchy greens and cucumber. Topped with more crunch in form of roasted Za’atar chickpeas and creamy goats’ cheese.
Choose your Dressing
I had this Sweet Potato Grape Salad with Goats Cheese with my Orange Thyme Tahini Dressing, which I created to go with the autumn flavours. But you can use any dressing you like. Ideally with a citrussy-sweet flavour profile, to go with all the elements of it. One day I also topped this with my Almond-Strawberry Vinaigrette for variety and enjoyed it immensely.
How To Make It
Most of the work is done by the oven after a bit of chopping and mixing. Dry the Chickpeas with paper towels, so they can crisp up, toss with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and Za’atar. Mix sweet potato cubes with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. Same as the grapes. Bake on separate trays in the oven for 10min for the grapes, 20-30 for chickpeas and sweet potatoes. Turn those last two in between, so they brown evenly.
While the above are baking, mix your beets with balsamic vinegar, orange juice and zest, chopped thyme, salt, and pepper and let them marinate until everything is ready.
Meal Prep
You can easily meal prep this for the week and just quickly crisp up the sweet potatoes and chickpeas in either oven or air fryer when ready to eat. That’s what I usually do with all my salads.
I have a collection of Tupperware and glass containers with lids and found, if I put each ingredient in a separate container, they stay fresh for several days. I tend to prepare my meals for my work week (yes, this is a typical work week meal for me) on the last day of my weekend, which usually takes a maximum of 2h. Then, when I’m hungry after work, I can just reheat some of the ingredients and throw the rest together in the bowl and have dinner ready in 10 minutes. I found an air fryer ideal for this, as it uses less energy than an oven, but gets things warm and crisp in minutes. For the potatoes and chickpeas, I will air fry them for 7- 8min on 175 C if I reheat them.
About Tahini
While it’s very easy to find Tahini in any supermarket these days, most are very thick, often bitter and very hard to use for dressings. I’m using my alltime favourite brand of Lebanese Tahini here, which is “Al Nakhil“. Now admittedly that one is a lot harder to find, especially in Ireland. But usually oriental or turkish shops will stock it. Right now the only place to order it online for me is the linked one. But it changes from month to month. So I tend to order several containers when I can get my hands on it, so I never run out.
Different uses for the Toppings
Another advantage of this method of meal prep is, that you can use the ingredients for this Sweet Potato Grape Salad in other ways too in case you get tired of salad (I doubt you will).
For this recipe, you could for example enjoy the roasted grapes with some cream cheese or ricotta on toasted sourdough bread. The beets on a snack plate in the evening, or just munch them straight from the fridge in case of cravings (I do that a lot!). The baby spinach or collard greens quickly fried and thrown into an omelette or stir fry. And the sweet potatoes make a fantastic side for any protein you might want.
Oh and the chickpeas! They are the perfect snack with Netflix. Quite addictive really.
Don’t let the long instructions scare you. This salad comes together in about 30min of active work. The 60minutes oven time is given, because my oven fits just 2 of the 3 trays I needed, so I had to bake the chickpeas separate, which took roughly 30min.
And there you have your beautiful Sweet Potato Grape Salad with Goats Cheese, ready to enjoy, knowing you are getting a really balanced meal with all the nutrients, yet you won’t think it’s healthy, it tastes so good. Which has me think: Why do we as society feel healthy is usually not flavourful? We might have to review our perception. 🙂
Looking for more salad ideas? Try my Chinese Duck pancake Salad with Plum Dressing. Super quick and utterly delicious.
Or maybe an extra quick Grilled Peach Mozzarella Salad, for those days when you really don’t feel like cooking.
Sweet Potato Grape Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups grapes
- 1 pack cooked beets 4-5, cut into 1in/2cm pieces.
- 1 large sweet potato cut into 1in/2cm pieces.
- 1 can or jar chickpeas drained.
- 1 pack goat’s cheese
- 2 romaine lettuce chopped or ripped into bite sized pieces.
- 1/2 head of collard greens or a bag of baby spinach chopped or ripped into bite sized pieces.
- 1/2 cucumber cubed.
- Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Za’atar
- 2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- Juice and zest of 1 orange
- 4 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Orange Thyme Tahini Dressing here:
Instructions
- Thyme Roasted Grapes:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- In a bowl, combine the grapes, thyme, 1 tsp olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat the grapes evenly.
- Spread the grapes on a baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, or until the grapes are slightly softened and caramelized. Set aside.
- I had mine in the oven for a little longer, so they basically fell apart. They were just as delicious though and the juices mix perfectly with the dressing.
- Za’atar Chickpeas:
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C)
- Rinse the chickpeas. Pat them dry using a clean kitchen towel.
- In a bowl add 1 tbsp olive oil, sprinkle the Za’atar, salt, and pepper over the chickpeas. Toss to coat evenly and spread on a parchment covered baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-30min, turning them every 10 minutes, until crispy.
- Remove from the oven to cool.
- Thyme Roasted Sweet Potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- In a bowl, toss the sweet potato cubes with thyme, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper until evenly coated.
- Spread the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes, turning them or until they are golden brown and tender. Set aside.
- If some of your pieces are smaller (always the case for me, considering plants aren’t square), you may want to take those out earlier, so they don’t burn.
- Balsamic Thyme Marinated Beets:
- In a bowl the fits the beets, whisk together the Balsamic vinegar, orange juice and zest, chopped thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Add the beets to the bowl and toss gently to coat. Allow the beets to marinate for at least 30 minutes to enhance the flavours.
- Salad Assembly:
- Add the romaine lettuce and collard greens or spinach to a large bowl. Drizzle over part of the dressing and toss until every leaf is coated.
- Top with the cucumber, marinated beets, thyme roasted grapes, Za’atar chickpeas, and thyme roasted sweet potatoes.
- Crumble over the goat’s cheese.
- Drizzle a little more of the Orange Thyme Honey Tahini Sauce over the salad and serve the rest on the side.
Notes
Personally I tend to crisp up the sweet potatoes and chickpeas quickly in the air fryer before adding them. A note on Olive Oil: I use a pump spray bottle that I fill with my favourite olive oil, so I use a lot less oil. In which case you can disregard the below measures and just spray the vegetables until you feel they are evenly coated, while tossing them in between a few times.
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