Chipotle Apple Sweet Potato Salad - an easy fall favorite. This sweet & spicy salad is SO filling with apples, corn, roasted tomatoes, and chipotle.
This is my new favorite salad… and I don’t throw words like “favorite” or “best ever” around lightly. You may have noticed that I love roasted sweet potatoes in just about any salad (as evident here, here, and here) but this combination – with roasted tomatoes, roasted apples, corn, and a tangy/smoky chipotle dressing – was so good that I made it for dinner two nights in a row.
The first night, I made this as a lazy-girl dinner. Jack was out of town so for an easy “by myself” dinner I decided to roast the things (pictured above) that had just arrived in my Farmhouse Delivery box. I made a quick (yet super delicious!) dressing and tossed it all together with toasted pepitas for crunch.
The second night, I was so excited to recreate it for Jack because I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. Am I the only person who goes to bed dreaming of things like sweet potatoes and apples?
In my humble opinion, this is late-summer-early-fall produce perfection. Be sure to make this while you can still find a few cherry tomatoes in season!
Chipotle Apple Sweet Potato Salad
- 1 medium sweet potato, chopped
- 1 large gala apple, cored and chopped
- ¾ cup cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1 ear of fresh corn, husked
- extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- two handfuls of baby spinach and/or arugula
- ¼ cup pepitas, toasted
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup feta cheese, optional
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons chipotle paste (or chipotle powder, to taste, see note)*
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon honey (or maple syrup if vegan)
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Preheat oven to 350°F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Toss the sweet potatoes, apple, and tomatoes onto the baking sheet with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast 30 to 35 minutes until the edges of the sweet potato are golden brown, tossing halfway through.
- Meanwhile wrap the ear of corn in foil and place it in oven during the last 15 minutes of roasting time.
- In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, chipotle paste (or powder), apple cider vinegar, honey (or maple syrup), and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Place the baby spinach and/or arugula in a large bowl along with the roasted sweet potatoes, apples and tomatoes. Slice the kernels off the corn and add them to the bowl as well. Toss the salad with the dressing, toasted pepitas, and feta cheese, if using. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
You can also use adobo sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo. The chipotle paste that I used here is very convenient because you can use small amounts at a time without opening and storing the contents of a whole can - I found it recently at Whole Foods.
I made this salad tonight without the corn and it was delicious! Thanks so much for sharing!
So colorful and healthy. I bet it’s delicious too!!
we loved this so much we made it two nights in a row. the second night we added avocado (instead of feta, since i am vegan), which was a super good addition!
Delicious! This is our dinner tonight. Thank you for the recipe:)
Oh my goodness, I can’t wait to give this one a try! Great to try something different with sweet potatoes! Hugs…Ro
This looks UNREAL. This salad will be perfect for the cottage this weekend. It’ll match the beauty of the changing leaves. Cheers!
Made this salad this morning for my lunch-time book club … so easy, and what a crowd pleaser! I did end up going very easy on the chipotle (powder, couldn’t find paste) — about a 1/2 teaspoon provided enough flavor for me.
I can confirm that, if you’re using chipotle powder rather than paste, you should reduce the amount. I went with the full 2 tsp., and it was too spicy, even for my significant other, who’s from Mexico and eats pickled jalapeños straight from the jar. Weirdly, the spice seemed to diminish rather than intensifying after a night in the fridge, but maybe we had just added the dressing unevenly. The salad was still yummy, but if I ever make it again, it won’t be with more than a half teaspoon of powder.
thanks for the feedback, I updated the recipe with better notes about chipotle powder amounts!
Thanks Barb! Glad you and your book club liked it 🙂
Looks delicious!
I love that you roasted all of the vegetables/apples together! Finding a tasty salad combination is the best feeling, I definitely know where you’re coming from with the whole dinner for two nights in a row thing!! 😀
I made this the other night, and it was absolutely delicious! The combination of smokey, sweet and savory was fabulous! Making it again tonight 🙂 Thank you!
Made the salad and loved the combination of ingredients. The chipotle dressing was a bit spicy for my taste, a little bit goes a LONG way. My husband preferred an oil/lemon juice dressing.
Hi Michelle, I do like spicy food but chipotle spices can also vary (esp from paste to powder, etc). If a dressing is ever too spicy (next time) try adding more vinegar and olive oil to temper it and fix the spice level to your taste…
Can you recommend some other dressings (not spicy) for this great salad recipe…thank you!
Hi Donna, try one of these, they’re both favorites of mine (either the whole salad or the dressings from them): http://www.loveandlemons.com/2012/12/26/sweet-potato-pomegranate-salad/ http://www.loveandlemons.com/2014/09/15/butternut-squash-quinoa-salad-w-tart-cherries/
(you can use sweet potatoes instead of butternut squash)
Hope you like!
I think this would also be great with pumpkin instead of sweet potato. Here in New Zealand we use pumpkin as a savoury vegetable rather than in sweet dishes. Cheers
Tried it and loved it! Fall in a plate!
so glad you liked it!