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Sweet Potato Sunshine Salad

5 from 4 votes
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 4 -6
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Ingredients

Date Vinaigrette

  • 2 pitted Medjool dates, soaked in hot water for at least 5 minutes
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
  • ½ inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
  • ½ teaspoon ground coriander
  • ⅛ teaspoon chili flakes
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
  • reserved date soaking water

Salad

  • 1½ lbs mini sweet potatoes
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced (I used some heirloom purple ones for colour contrast)
  • 2 bell peppers, seeded and diced into 3/4 inch pieces
  • ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
  • ½ small red onion, sliced thin
  • ½-1 cup cooked chickpeas
  • big handful of cilantro leaves, leaves chopped
  • 1 healthy sprig of mint, leaves chopped
  • ¼ cup shelled pistachios, chopped
  • sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  • Make the dressing: combine the soaked dates (reserving the water), olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard, chopped ginger, ground coriander, chili flakes, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in an upright blender. Blend on high, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary. Add a couple spoonfuls of the date soaking water to get the blade moving, if necessary. You want it totally pureed and almost creamy. I ended up using about 2 tablespoons of the water. Check the vinaigrette for seasoning, adjust, and set aside.
  • Place the mini sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover them with cold water. Place the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Simmer the sweet potatoes until they're nice and tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the sweet potatoes and place them in an ice bath to cool them down quickly.
  • Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them into 1 inch-ish pieces--kind of like how you would for a potato salad. Place cut sweet potatoes in a large bowl along with the diced carrots, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, red onion slices, chickpeas, cilantro, and mint. Season all of the vegetables with lots of salt and pepper. Add the date vinaigrette to the bowl and toss the vegetables and chickpeas to coat. Sprinkle the chopped pistachios on top and serve.

Equipment

Recipe Notes

  • You could add some cooked quinoa or millet to the mix--about a 1/2 cup of dry grain cooked.
  • I'm guessing that mini sweet potatoes aren't available everywhere. If I was doing this with regular sweet potatoes, I'd probably take 3 medium sized tubers and cut them down the middle lengthwise, and then just boil them like that and proceed with the recipe as written.
Sweet potato sunshine salad with Morocco-inspired spices, date dressing, mint, and pistachios. A healthy vegan crowd pleaser made in 30 minutes!