Sweet Peas and Saffron

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Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad (+ Video)

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This healthy and delicious sweet potato salad has ‘fall’ written all over it! Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a chili-lime vinaigrette.

Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad with a Chili Lime Vinaigrette- Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a honey-chili-lime vinaigrette.

Well, hi!

Are you all recovering from Halloween? I hope there was lots of chocolate and cute trick-or-treaters, and maybe a celebratory glass of wine in your lives last night. We had two of the three…wine and chocolate, that is. We had only five trick-or-treaters! Sad.

And hand in hand with our chocolate and glass of wine was a verrrry scary movie. Skarknado!

Ben scrolled through the {actually} scary movies on Netflix, and I vetoed them all. Too scary for me {I’m still scared of the basement after watching a few episodes of American Horror Story}. Sharknado it was.

Well, this sweet potato salad recipe was originally slated for earlier in the week…until our house was struck down by the plague {flu}. But maybe the day after Halloween, after we have all eaten more than our share of mini-Snickers bars, is actually better timing for a healthy deeeelicious salad.

Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad with a Chili Lime Vinaigrette- Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a honey-chili-lime vinaigrette.

Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad with a Chili Lime Vinaigrette- Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a honey-chili-lime vinaigrette.

This sweet potato salad was inspired a corn/bean/rice salad that my mom always makes. The rice soaks up the amazing white wine/chili powder vinaigrette giving it the ultimate delicious texture, and mild, tangy flavor.

My own version started with roasted sweet potato and wild rice {actually I used a brown rice/wild rice combo}. Then I needed some crunch, so I added some celery. And I wanted more veggies so I added some peppers, carrots, and red onion. Finally the dressing: a white wine vinaigrette with lots of yummy additives: chili powder for that southwestern sorta flavor, honey {maple syrup if you are vegan} for a touch of sweetness {but it is still a savory dressing}, lime juice for some acid, and some garlic.

Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad with a Chili Lime Vinaigrette- Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a honey-chili-lime vinaigrette.

Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad with a Chili Lime Vinaigrette- Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a honey-chili-lime vinaigrette.

All together, this sweet potato salad has soft rice, crunchy veggies, sweet…sweet potato, balanced by a savory dressing.

This salad is a keeper. It can work for dinner {just add some grilled chicken}, and it keeps well in the fridge for a few days, making it perfect for lunches.

And it is packed with healthy sweet potato, wild rice, and all those other veggies.

Perfect Halloween detox food.

More fall salad recipes for us

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5 from 4 votes

Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad with a Chili-Lime Vinaigrette

Course: Salad
Cuisine: southwestern
Calories: 150kcal
Servings: 8
This healthy and delicious salad has 'fall' written all over it! Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a chili-lime vinaigrette.
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time45 mins
Total Time1 hr 5 mins

Ingredients

Roasted Sweet Potato

  • 1 medium sweet potato peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Salad

  • 3/4 cup uncooked wild rice blend
  • 1 carrot peeled and grated
  • 1 celery cut finely
  • 1 red pepper seeded and diced
  • 1 yellow pepper seeded and diced
  • 1/4 cup red onion diced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro leaves roughly chopped

Vinaigrette

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons honey {maple syrup to make it vegan}
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Roasted Sweet Potato

  • Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Toss sweet potato in olive oil, ground cumin and chili powder. Arrange on a baking sheet or baking dish.
  • Bake for 15 minutes, flip {or just give it a good stir}, and continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes, until a fork goes into the sweet potatoes easily.
  • Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Salad

  • Cook rice according to package directions. You should end up with just over 2 cups of cooked rice. Allow to cool completely before assembling the salad.
  • Combine cooled sweet potato, cooled rice, and remaining salad ingredients.
  • Whisk together all vinaigrette ingredients and toss salad thoroughly.

Nutrition

Serving: 1/8 of batch | Calories: 150kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 99mg | Potassium: 224mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 84.5% | Vitamin C: 58.1% | Calcium: 1.4% | Iron: 3.8%

Products used in this recipe:

 Wild Rice and Sweet Potato Salad with a Chili Lime Vinaigrette- Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, celery, onions and wild rice are tossed in a honey-chili-lime vinaigrette.

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Comments

  1. Alli

    October 21, 2017 at 6:45 am

    I made this last night and we loved it. So pretty and tasty. I’m looking forward to the leftovers for my lunch today. 🙂
    I’m sure it’s delicious as written, but I did make a couple of changes: 1. I saw my semi-solid coconut oil in the pantry when I reached in for the olive oil, and decided to toss the sweet potatoes with that. It added a very light flavor that worked perfectly with the chile-lime flavors. 2. I was out of cumin – oh no, what to do! In place of the 1/4 tsp of cumin, I added 1/8 tsp each of turmeric and coriander. Luckily it tasted fine. 🙂 But next time (probably next week) I’ll use the cumin. 3. I left out the celery just because nobody in my family is crazy about it, and the salad already had such a variety of color and crunch.
    Thank you for sharing this lovely tasty recipe!

    Reply

  2. Stephanie

    October 4, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    The salad was fabulous! I used farro since I had it on hand. Warmed it up just a little bit to take the chill off of it. Any ideas on calorie count?

    Reply

    • Denise

      October 5, 2017 at 1:34 pm

      Love that you used farro, now I want to try it! I haven’t added nutritional info to this recipe yet (most of my older recipes don’t have that info) but I’ll let you know as soon as I do!

      Reply

  3. Megan Davies

    May 16, 2016 at 3:47 pm

    This salad looks incredible! I think i’m going to try and make it tonight and save the rest for lunch! I’m assuming this is meant to be eaten cold, could I warm it as well?

    Reply

    • Denise

      May 16, 2016 at 3:58 pm

      Hi Megan! Thanks so much! You know, I’ve only eaten it cold. I bet it would be yummy hot, too though…let me know how it is if you try it!

      Reply

  4. Julie

    May 23, 2015 at 8:18 pm

    I made this tonight and I wanted to lick my plate. The vinaigrette was amazing with the sweet potato. I didn’t have any wild rice, so I used quinoa. I also added black beans and corn.

    Reply

  5. Heidi

    March 31, 2015 at 8:36 pm

    Made it. Tasted it. Loved it! Wondering how many calories this is per serving or how many weight watchers points? – thanks

    Reply

  6. Ms. Becky

    March 23, 2015 at 12:31 pm


    I just made this salad and it is delicious. I am often wary of trying new things – I buy strictly organic and if the recipe doesn’t pan out, I’ve wasted all that good stuff. It has happened many times, I tell you. Well, this time I did not strike out! Thanks for a delicious, nutritious salad that I’m able to make for my husband’s lunch. I hope you have a beautiful day!

    Reply

  8. Natalie @ Tastes Lovely

    November 5, 2014 at 2:13 pm


    Shawn and I did the same thing with the scary movies on Netflix! Waaaay too scary looking! We settled on Hocus Pocus. That’s a safe one. Sharknado is so funny, huh? They’re coming out with part 2 soon. I love this wild rice bowl! Perfect for fall. And that chilli lime vinaigrette is perfect for this.

    Reply

    • Denise

      November 5, 2014 at 9:40 pm

      Aaah I was looking at Hocus Pocus on On Demand but we don’t have it on our netflix and I didn’t want to pay $6. But I loved Hocus Pocus so much growing up I went to see it in the theaters twice! I want to re-watch it 🙂

      Reply

  13. Isadora @ she likes food

    November 2, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    We had way more trick or treaters than I thought we were gonna get and it was so much fun! I still ate way too much candy now and could really use a salad like this! I love everything you put in here and that vinaigrette sounds awesome!

    Reply

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