Ready within an hour, this sweet potato kale salad with crispy chickpeas and pickled red onion is the perfect, hearty dinner salad. It’s made with simple ingredients, like chopped kale, sweet potatoes, canned chickpeas, red onion, spices, lemon juice, chopped pistachios, and olive oil. This vegan salad main requires a bit of roasting time in the oven for the sweet potatoes and chickpeas! Filled with zesty flavours, 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.

Here’s a recipe that I make for dinner all the time, so it’s definitely met my testing criteria! This kale and sweet potato salad recipe looks long and intimidating, but it all comes together with simple methods. I’ve included my method for making pickled red onions in this recipe as well. I make these every weekend without fail. They’re the perfect flavour punch to add to salads, sandwiches, veggie burgers, and bowls.

If you’ve followed my site for a while, you already know my opinion on salads like this. I’m 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 (lemon juice here). After massaging, the kale leaves will be tender and will have a milder, less bitter taste as well. 

My kale sweet potato dressing here is a spicy tahini ranch. After you’ve pickled the onions, massaged the kale, roasted the sweet potatoes and chickpeas until crisp, you simply whisk up the dressing to pour on top. After you’ve massaged the kale, you’re welcome to toss the leaves in some of this tahini dressing also. I personally just love it on top. 

I hope that you love this one! Juxtaposing textures of crunchy, creamy, and tender really do it for me in a dinner salad. I’d 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

Kale sweet potato salad is an ideal vegan dinner salad. Loaded with texture from soft roasted sweet potatoes, crispy chickpeas, crunchy pistachios, and sharp pickled red onions. Homemade spicy tahini dressing is creamy-dreamy and finishes it off!

5 from 10 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 40 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr

Servings 4 -6

Ingredients

Pickled Red Onions (makes extra)

• 1 large red onion, cut into thin half moons
• 1 cup water
• ⅔ cup white vinegar
• ¼ 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 ½ 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

• ⅓ cup tahini
• 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 1-2 tablespoons hot sauce
• ½ teaspoon Tamari
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• ¼ – ⅓ 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
• ¼ cup shelled and salted pistachios, chopped

Notes

• This recipe looks so long, I know! But all of the steps are super simple, promise.
• 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 that’s 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 425°F 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 ¼ 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!

Author: Laura Wright

Course: Main Course, Salad, Sauce

Diet: Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword: cane sugar, chickpeas, chives, dill, fall, garlic powder, hot sauce, kale, lemon, maple syrup, olive oil, onion powder, paprika, pickled red onions, pistachios, red onion, spring, summer, sweet potato, tahini, tamari, vinegar, winter