Sweet Potato Grape Salad with Goats Cheese

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.

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• The Process
• Meal Prep

Why You Will Love This 

Lots Of Layered Flavors And Textures

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 crunch in form of roasted Za’atar chickpeas and creamy goats’ cheese.

If you were ever in doubt about salads, try this and you’ll be a convert, I promise.

7 Of Your 5-A-Day In One Bowl

As so often during my weight loss journey, I was looking for a way to get as many vegetables in my main meal for the day as I could. But I demand each of them tastes great on it’s own. Which is why I treat them differently, to bring out their best.

The sweet potatoes get caramelized in the oven, while the chickpeas share the space to crisp up addictively, providing you with that more-ish crunch in every bite and a good bit of protein.

Ready cooked sweet and earthy beets are marinated with some balsamic vinegar and thyme, emphasizing their qualities and blending seamlessly with the roasted grapes.

And for the much needed crunch and greens we have romaine lettuce, sweetheart cabbage and cucumber.

For an example on what makes cabbage so incredibly moreish, give it a try in the probably easiest recipe with cabbage you can ever make (also great to use up the rest of the head!): Yamitsuki.

See, it’s really easy to enjoy your 5-a-day!

Refined Oil Free Dressing

During my weight loss journey, I read many books about nutrition and different approaches to weight loss. Two of the best ones in my opinion were “Fibre Fuelled”* and “Eat To Live”*.

While I’m not vegan (yet love vegan food. I’m a walking contradiction!) and don’t subscribe to the restrictions of the Nutritarian way, I do enjoy the nut- and seed-based dressings it offers, as they are often lower calorie than oil-based dressings, while offering more nutrition and fibre to the body. However, I do add salt, contrary to the Nutritarian approach, since I love how it enhances flavor.

The Ingredients

• Sweet potato  – Cut into 1in/2cm pieces. Roast together with chickpeas and grapes
• Chickpeas – Crisp up beautifully in the oven and act similar to croutons, though with more protein, on the salad
• Grapes – get super aromatic and juicy when roasted, contributing sweetness and essentially part of the dressing when mixed
• Beets – Pre-cooked saves time. The just get marinated quickly with some balsamic and improve the longer you leave them (up to a week)
• Romaine lettuce  – Adding the greens and juicy crunch
• Sweetheart cabbage or white cabbage – Another thing I learned to love from the Nutritarian diet: Most days I add some sort of cruciferous veggie to my meal. Not just for nutrition, but because I adore the resistance it provides me when munching. So satisfying!
• Cucumber – I know using half is weird, but it felt enough to me. I didn’t want to water down all the sweetness and herby flavors, but just add enough juicyness to emphasize them. Of course you can add a whole one if you like. 🙂
• Goat’s cheese – A small pack of the fresh and creamy stuff will go a long way. Have you noticed that a tiny bit of cheese takes every salad over the top?

For the Orange-Thyme Tahini Dressing

A Word on Tahini

Whatever you do, please don’t use the classic supermarket version of Tahini here, which you will recognise by the firm and hard to scoop paste in a jar topped with a thick layer of oil. I found they are at best just hard to work with, worst case add a horrible, bitter note to your recipes.

What we are after is creamy, easy to pour, and lovely sesame flavoured Tahini.
Israeli, Lebanese and Palestinian versions offer it, like “Al Nakhil”, which is the one I’m using.

Admittedly I have to order it online and it is often sold out in Ireland. So when I spot it, I tend to order several containers, for fear of running out. I get it at the Asia Market or Fallon & Byrne in Ireland. But if you live elsewhere in the world, check for the above countries of origin and you should be fine.

• Tahini – See above. Gives this dressing its creamy texture, replaces oil and will have you addicted to the sesame flavor with the first taste. Just don’t try it on its own. I did and regretted it immediately.
• Orange Juice and zest – Since I’m going for s slightly sweeter flavor here, to work with the sweet potato and grapes from my salad, my main acid component is orange juice and the aromatic zest.
• Balsamic vinegar – To layer different types of acidity and sweetness
• Lemon  – With its more pronounced sour, yet slightly floral aroma, lemon juice perfectly rounds the acid components.
• Honey – Goes just too well with sesame to skip it. Try Honey-Sesame Cookies and you know what I mean.
• Flavorings – I used garlic and thyme, but you could use all kinds of herbs here. Get creative!
• Salt and Pepper to taste

The Process

The Salad

• 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.
• Roast sweet potatoes and chickpeas on separate sheetpans* for about 20-30 minutes until the chickpeas are crisp and the potatoes cooked through with lovely caramelized edges.
• Same for the grapes. Though you’ll want a deeper baking dish* for them, as they are very juicy. The will need about 10 minutes in the oven.
• 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.

The Orange-Thyme Tahini Dressing

Add all of your ingredients to a lidded jar and shake vigorously until well combined and creamy.
If, despite your best efforts, you could only get one of the rock hard supermarket Tahini versions, you might have to resort to using a whisk *. Or, worst case, a blender.

Assemble

Once all your ingredients are prepared, lay out a bed of greens on your plate and mix them thoroughly with some dressing.
Then scatter your caramelized sweet potato, crunchy chickpeas, marinated beets and cucumbers over it and to with some creamy goats cheese lumps.
Drizzle with more Tahini dressing.

Enjoy your decidedly autumn themed salad bowl *!

Meal Prep

Crisp Up Sweet Potatoes and Chickpeas

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 do with most of my salads.
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.

Store

I have a collection of Tupperware and lidded glass containers* as you see above, and found, if I put each ingredient in a separate container, they stay fresh for several days.

Invest a Little Time On Your Weekend, for Quick and Healthy Weeknight Meals

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.

Want More Healthy and Delicious Salad Ideas?

Grilled Mango Burrata Salad with Bacon

Grilled Peach Mozzarella Salad

Lentil Mango Salad with Mango Coconut Lime Chicken

Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.

Sweet Potato Grape Salad

Sonja Goeden

A colourful, fibre packed bowl full of autumn flavours, this salad 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. If you want to. Don’t let the long instructions scare you. Most work is done by the oven, after a tiny bit of chopping and seasoning.

5 from 12 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course, Salad

Cuisine American

Servings 4

Calories 418 kcal

Equipment

• 2 large mixing bowl
• 2 Sheetpans
• 1 baking dish such as pyrex for the grapes

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cups grapes
• 4 cooked beets cut into 1in/ 2cm pieces.
• 1 sweet potato large. Cut into 1in/2cm pieces.
• 1 can chickpeas drained.
• 1 pack goat's cheese
• 2 romaine lettuce chopped or ripped into bite sized pieces.
• 1/2 sweetheart cabbage or white cabbage. Chopped or ripped into bite sized pieces.
• 1/2 cucumber cubed.
• 2 tbsp olive oil for roasting
• 1 tbsp Za’atar
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 orange Juice and zest
• 4 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

Orange Thyme Tahini Dressing

• 1/3 cup Tahini
• 2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 tbsp Fresh Thyme chopped. Or Za’atar
• 1 Orange Juice and zest
• 1/2 lemon juiced
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Thyme Roasted Grapes:

• 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:

• 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:

• 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 cabbage 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

The equipment section may contain affiliate links to products I know and love. 

The 4 portions given here are, as with pretty much all my large salads, thought as a very filling main meal, which I used to lose weight. In “normal” portions this would probably be more 6. Or more as a side dish. But then…this salad is far to addictive to be a side. 

If you are like me and like to food prep, keep all the ingredients in separate glass containers with lids in the fridge. This way they will keep for several days, and you can throw together a bowl of salad whenever you are hungry.
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 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 a few times.

Nutrition

Calories: 418kcalCarbohydrates: 61gProtein: 9gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 6gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 0.1mgSodium: 132mgPotassium: 1161mgFiber: 12gSugar: 35gVitamin A: 9984IUVitamin C: 99mgCalcium: 200mgIron: 6mg

Nutrition Facts

Sweet Potato Grape Salad

Amount per Serving

Calories

418

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

18

g

28

%

Saturated Fat

 

3

g

19

%

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

6

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

9

g

Cholesterol

 

0.1

mg

0

%

Sodium

 

132

mg

6

%

Potassium

 

1161

mg

33

%

Carbohydrates

 

61

g

20

%

Fiber

 

12

g

50

%

Sugar

 

35

g

39

%

Protein

 

9

g

18

%

Vitamin A

 

9984

IU

200

%

Vitamin C

 

99

mg

120

%

Calcium

 

200

mg

20

%

Iron

 

6

mg

33

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Keyword For Guests, Healthy, High Fibre, Vegetarian

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