Roasted Sweet Potato Salad

This herb roasted sweet potato salad is perfection: crispy sweet potatoes coated in a rich and creamy herb mixture, finished with crunchy red onions. Perfect at a picnic, BBQ, or for an anytime side dish, you’ll love how flavorful this roasted sweet potato salad is. Elegant enough for company but easy enough for a weeknight! Naturally vegan and Whole30 options.

What Makes This Recipe So Good

There are some restaurant dishes so good that you’ll send visitors there just for a taste. For me, one of those life-changing dishes is the potato salad at McEwen’s in downtown Memphis. I fell in love instantly with the rich and heady herb-roasted crusts, the crispy potatoes, and the fresh onions to balance the dried herbs.

I was inspired to swap out white potatoes for sweet potatoes, smothered in a rich blend of dried herbs and spices, then roasted until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Then I coated them in a mixture of mayonnaise, fresh cilantro, and minced red onions for a creamy, flavorful side dish.

Ingredients

• Sweet potatoes – Tender, sweet, and so full of flavor, sweet potatoes can easily be used in a savory recipe such as this one.
• Dried basil – Basil has a slightly minty flavor and easily combines with other spices when used in its dried form.
• Dried oregano – With a green, earthy taste and a strong aroma, dried oregano adds a burst of flavor to the sweet potatoes.
• Dried thyme – Subtle and earthy, thyme adds another component of sweet and a little minty.
• Onion powder – Onion powder gives the potatoes a nice punch of onion flavor.
• Garlic powder – Powdered garlic is sweeter and not as strong as fresh garlic, which helps give this dish flavor without overpowering the other seasonings.
• Mayonnaise – Good quality mayo makes this sweet potato salad creamy, but lets the other ingredients shine through.
• Cilantro – The cilantro in this salad tastes herbaceous and not strong, but you can leave out if you aren’t a fan.
• Red onion – Sweet and crunchy, red onions are the perfect addition to this salad to give it more texture.

Chef’s Tips

• Serve this salad warm or room temperature, but not cold!
• Make sure to use a good quality mayo like Hellmann’s or Sprout’s Organic. Some mayonnaises have a really strong or pungent flavor that can completely overwhelm the other ingredients.
• For a vegan salad, use vegan mayo. Again, make sure it doesn’t have that strong taste!
• Use a Whole30 compliant mayo if you’re doing a round of Whole30.

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