Quinoa Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Kale & Pesto Vinaigrette
This healthy quinoa salad features roasted sweet potato, toasted sunflower seeds and a super flavorful, pesto-inspired dressing. Vegan and gluten free!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 10, 2024
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Food blogging has its perks. Sometimes, people offer to send me cookbooks. Sometimes, I find recipes in said books worth sharing with you all. This recipe, by Gena Hamshaw of Choosing Raw and the author of Food52 Vegan: 60 Vegetable-Driven Recipes for Any Kitchen, is one of them.
This recipe jumped out to me since savory sweet potatoes, kale, quinoa and pesto are a few of my favorite ingredients. It also seemed like a salad that would pack well for yesterday’s flights, and it did. I feel so accomplished when I arrive at the airport with a healthy meal in tow. Which, to be clear, is almost never. It’s a miracle when I remember to bring socks!
I found the final kicker in Gena’s headnote, which suggested that this is a salad for August or September, when basil is plentiful at farmers’ markets and sweet potatoes are just becoming available. Since September is almost over, I thought I’d better hurry up and make it.
I’m generally inclined to throw feta or goat cheese into my salads, so this salad was an exercise in restraint for me. I was also tempted to toss in some dried cranberries, too, or substitute pepitas for sunflower seeds, but it’s honestly just right as is. Note to self: less can be more, especially when an outrageously flavorful pesto-inspired dressing is involved.
I’m exploring the Pittsburgh area today with DeLallo and friends, so I’m signing off early. Be sure to let me know what you think of this salad and check out Gena’s book, Food52 Vegan, if you’re interested in vegan cooking or looking for dairy-free inspiration!
Quinoa Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Kale & Pesto Vinaigrette
This hearty vegan quinoa salad features crisp and tender roasted sweet potato, toasted sunflower seeds and an outrageously flavorful, pesto-inspired dressing. It would be a great light dinner on its own, or a suitable side salad for soups and sandwiches. It packs great for lunches, too! Recipe yields 4 medium servings.
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 medium sweet potatoes (about ¾ pound total), peeled and diced into ½-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
- 1 ¾ cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups stemmed and finely chopped curly kale
- ½ cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds*
- ⅓ cup thinly sliced fresh basil
Pesto dressing
- ½ cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup firmly packed fresh parsley leaves
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup or agave nectar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- To prepare the sweet potatoes, transfer them to the prepared baking sheet and toss them with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and arrange in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes, then toss and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until tender and browning. Set the pan aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, combine the rinsed quinoa and broth in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, cover, and cook until the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid, about 20 minutes. Fluff the quinoa with a fork and set aside to cool.
- To make the vinaigrette, combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until mostly smooth, but with small pieces of herbs still visible.
- Transfer the chopped kale to a large serving bowl. Sprinkle with a dash of salt and then use your hands to “massage” the kale, grabbing big handfuls at a time and gently squeezing them in your fist until the kale is darker in color and more fragrant, about 15 seconds.
- Add the sweet potatoes, quinoa, kale, sunflower seeds and sliced basil to the bowl. Drizzle with about ⅓ cup dressing and gently toss until all of the ingredients are evenly coated. Taste and mix in more dressing if desired (you may want to use all of it).
- Serve the salad at room temperature or cold. Leftovers will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 2 days.
Notes
Recipe reprinted with permission from Food52 Vegan, by Gena Hamshaw, copyright © 2015, published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
Change it up: Butternut would be a great substitution for the sweet potato, as would pepitas for the sunflower seeds.
*How to toast your own sunflower seeds: If you only have raw, unsalted sunflower seeds at home (like me), toast them in a small skillet over medium heat with ¼ teaspoon olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until they’re turning lightly golden on the edges, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I made this and turned it into a “warm kale, quinoa and sweet potato salad” by sautéing the kale first. I also used Kate’s kale pesto since it’s winter and basil is expensive this time of year. Turned out AMAZING!
Great! Thank you, Allison for sharing and for the review.
okay, this recipe is MAGIC! I feel like a professional chef when I make this salad. it is genuinely soooo yummy, and I feel fresh and full after eating it, not heavy and gross. I actually don’t like pesto so I toss the massaged kale with a whole lemon + some olive oil before I add the quinoa & sweet potatoes, and I also don’t let the quinoa cool entirely because when I add it warm it cooks the kale JUST a touch. thank you sooooo much for this! LOVING it!
I’m glad you feel successful! Thanks for sharing, Bianca.
:) just ordered your cookbook. so excited!
This was sooo good!! I made this on Thursday…how many days in the fridge would it keep?
And can this be frozen?
I’m not sure on being frozen, Christy. But, you could try it. I would question the consistency once thawed. It should keep well in refrigerated for a few days.
Just a question – the pesto vinaigrette makes 1 1/2 cups, but for 4 servings, you recommend using about 1/3 cup dressing. I have a jar of pesto left to use up, so I should use around 1/3 cup for the recipe if I use that instead of the dressing you provided & keep the other ingredient amounts the same? Would you recommend thinning out my store-bought pesto at all – how thin is the dressing in this recipe?
It depends on how thick the store bought is. This one is a vinaigrette, so it likely isn’t as thick the one you have. You can add a little oil to it to get it to a consistency it can easily be mixed with the dish. Hope this helps!
Had to reply & comment with how it turned out. My basil plant ended up producing enough basil for me to use in a half dressing recipe and I used all basil instead of parsley + basil. This salad was great!
My husband calls any dish I make that doesn’t contain meat a “side dish”. So I cubed up some cooked chicken from the freezer which I had left over from a soup I made. It blended seamlessly. He said, “It’s a side dish plus” — high praise from him. This dish is absolutely delicious–another winner posted by C+K. THANK YOU!
I’m glad this was a step-up in his book! Thank you, Lydia for sharing. I appreciate the review!
Are there are other vinaigrettes that would work well with this power salad or can you use ready made pesto to dress up the salad?
You can use store bought pesto, if you like. You might want to add extra olive oil depending on the thickness of the pesto. Hope this helps!
How many calories per serving on this??
Hi Laura! The nutrition information is below the notes section of the recipe. :)
I don’t have basil to make the dressing. Do you think this would be good with my store bought pesto from Trader Joe’s?
You could use that. But, you make want to add some olive oil to make it more runny. Let me know what you think!
Do you think it would work out to switch the Quinoa for Cauliflower rice?
Sure! It won’t be quite as filling as the quinoa adds fiber and protein, but it could work.
This is one of my fav recipes ever. This is also one of the most requested potluck item for any event I attend. It is fresh and bright, and the mix of flavors (& sometimes temperatures, depending on how soon between when I have prepped it and am serving it) is always appealing!
Thank you for sharing!!
You’re welcome, Cara!
This is an excellent combination! I’m in California where we are currently homebound so I had to made substitutions for the dressing and use what I had on hand. I thought I’d share for others in a similar situation because it still turned out really delicious. I didn’t have the herbs for the dressing so I used a couple of tablespoons of left over pesto from a jar and added the lemon juice and maple syrup per the recipe. I too was tempted to toss some kind of cheese in there (because Cheese!) but Kate never steers me wrong so I left it out and followed the rest of the recipe as written. It was so good! I can’t wait to try the recipe with this dressing once I can grocery shop freely again.
Thanks for sharing how you made this what you had on hand! That’s great insight.
I loved this salad!!!
Wat kind of parsley should I use?
Hi! Flat leaf parsley works great.
Loved this! The first time I ever used sweet potato in a dish (I’m new to cooking), and the pesto dressing was delicious – I tweaked it a little to suit my palette (I like a minty dressing) but gonna add this one to my regulars now.
Hooray! I love to hear that. Thank you so much fo sharing.
Kate!
I’m sooooo grateful that you posted this recipe-it’s absolutely delicious! I wanted to make something different to pair with crab cakes for supper, and this salad was THE BOMB! I got a little inspired and added some raw shredded beet just before I served it and everyone loved the salad. Can’t thank you enough!
Excellent! Tasty and colorful.
I just made this and it is just delicious! I have a lot of basil and parsley in my garden that I needed to use so this was perfect:) I used baby kale because that’s what I had but kept everything else the same. Yum! Your recipes never disappoint!!
That’s great to hear! Thank you for sharing, Kelly.
Wow…. this was incredible! Absolutely delicious. I followed the recipe as in, with the exception of using pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds because that’s what I had in my pantry. I am definitely making this again.
I’ve made this recipe numerous times and it’s always a hit. Every couple of months or so we meet our out-of-town daughter and her family at a park halfway between our two cities. I often make this salad to share for our pot-luck picnic. I love to see how much they enjoy it. Our son-in-law fills is plate full and always comes back for seconds.
This is a great one to have made a lot! I’m glad it has been a hit for you and your family. Thank you for your review, Carol!
Oh my- this salad is incredibly delicious! The only thing I did differently was I used pumpkin seeds, which I roasted. Another amazing recipe from Cookie and Kate!
I’m excited you loved it, Andrea! Thank you for your review.
Really good. thanks!
I really enjoyed this dish,but made a few changes that worked very well. For one I used butternut squash in stead of sweet potato. (Which Kate mentioned would be fine) Also I doctored up store bought pesto with Lemmon juice and maple syrup. Both changes proved to be delicious! I will make this again as a side or main dish salad.
I’m glad it worked well with your changes! Thank you for sharing, Michelle.
I’ve made this twice now. It keeps in the fridge so well. I pulled it out, added goat cheese and pine nuts, then topped it with two fried eggs and sriracha. Such a great breakfast bowl!!
OMG this salad is so good! I blended the sunflower seeds with the dressing to make an actual pesto. I was unsure why the recipe said to leave them in whole, but I highly recommend blending them in with the vinaigrette. I am ONLY using sunflower seeds from now on to make pesto!
I’m glad you loved it, Ashely! I appreciate your review.
This is AMAZING! Stumbled across the recipe when trying to recreate a dish I had recently at an organic farm. Added some caramelized onions, but otherwise made as written. Can’t wait to eat this for lunch tomorrow!
Kate, I have homemade basil pesto in my fridge. Could I add a little maple syrup & lemon juice so it comes close to this great dressing?
You could try it. I wouldn’t say for sure without trying it.
Could I use already made pesto? If so what would I have to do to it to make it like a dressing ?
You could try it. You could try to thin it out with some more olive oil. Let me know if you try it!
I love this salad! I’ve made it several times and it’s always delicious. I’ve used jarred pesto in a pinch and it’s still tasty.