This warm roasted sweet potato lentil salad is a super simple quick sheet pan dinner tossed in a 2 minute roasted garlic tahini dressing, chopped almonds, and fresh parsley. A deliciously flavor-packed meal or side dish to serve all week long!
Your new easy go-to weeknight dinner:
If you’re ever strapped for time during the week but want a flavor packed, simple, yet downright delicious meal that’s also easy, then you need to try this roasted sweet potato lentil salad.
I’ve been having quite the obsession with sweet potato lately. And if you’re sweet potato obsessed too, then two recipes you need to try are my easy sweet potato curry and this one.
Okay…and my mediterranean lentil salad for the warmer months. That one is fantastic too!
It’s more than just roasted sweet potatoes and lentils (though that is good). We’re also tossing this lentil salad in a creamy and quick roasted garlic tahini dressing that’s seriously spoon-worthy it’s so good.
And unlike our herbed potato salad (which is refreshingly delicious), this “salad” can be served as a full on meal or a side dish.
9 Simple Ingredients:
- Lentils: You can use dried lentils or store bought pre-cooked lentils. Either works here!
- Sweet potatoes: Regular orange yams works well here, but you can also use white (Japanese or Hannah sweet potatoes) as well!
- Olive oil: You can also use avocado oil or another neutral cooking oil. Coconut oil works well here too, but just note that there might be a coconut flavor to the dish.
- Dried herbs: Just cumin and Italian seasoning here!
- Parsley: I used Italian parsley, but you can use whichever is fresh!
- Garlic: We’re going to use half of a garlic bulb, but you can roast the whole garlic (and save some of the roasted garlic for another dish, like this dairy free dill yogurt sauce!).
- Lime: You can also swap in lemon juice here.
- Tahini: If you’d like, you can also swap in cashew butter for a milder, slightly sweeter flavor. It goes really well with the roasted garlic!
Do I have to soak the lentils?
Nope! The best part about lentils is that they’re fairly quick to make. Simply add the dried lentils to boiling water, and let them cook for 4 minutes. Then leave them covered for another 3 minutes.
That’s it! However, if you want to make your life even easier, you can use canned or pre-packaged lentils.
Step-by-Step how to make sweet potato lentil salad with photos:
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
Storage & Reheating:
This sweet potato lentil salad is fantastic to make for a meal prep lunch or dinner weekly. You can roast everything together on Sunday, and have leftovers all week!
Storage: Place any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Reheating: When ready to reheat, preheat the oven to 300F, and add your desired portion to a baking sheet. Bake for 5-7 minutes. Alternatively, you can add the roasted sweet potato lentil salad to a sauce pan and heat for 2-3 minutes via the stove top.
Serving suggestions:
As I mentioned above, this dish is great for either a side dish or served as a main.
When you add a vegetable, like roasted Brussels sprouts or roasted red cabbage steaks, to it, or even some kale or zucchini, you get a complete meal!
It’s also a fantastic main or side dish to serve at a holiday, like Thanksgiving or Christmas. I love these garlic dinner rolls or focaccia to pair with it.
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Lentils
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- Author: Britt Berlin
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This warm roasted sweet potato lentil salad is a super simple quick sheet pan dinner tossed in a 2 minute roasted garlic tahini dressing, chopped almonds, and fresh parsley. A deliciously flavor-packed meal or side dish to serve all week long!
Ingredients
Scale
Sweet potato lentil salad base:
- 4 medium sweet potatoes, rinsed
- 1 cup dried mixed lentils
- 1 tbsp olive oil or cooking oil
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- Sea salt + pepper to taste
Roasted Garlic Tahini Dressing:
- 1/2 bulb garlic (6–8 cloves)
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup tahini*
- Juice from 1 small lime
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- Sea salt + pepper to taste
- 4–5 tbsp water
Toppings:
- More fresh parsley
- Chopped almonds
- Capers
Instructions
- Prep:Preheat the oven to 375F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wash and pat dry the sweet potatoes.
- Slice the sweet potatoes:Slice the sweet potatoes into small wedges. Place the sweet potatoes onto the baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Use clean hands or a spoon to toss the sweet potatoes to evenly coat, then sprinkle on the cumin, Italian seasoning, sea salt, and pepper, and toss again.
- Bake:Place the baking sheet into the oven to bake the sweet potatoes for 45-55 minutes. While the sweet potatoes are baking, we’ll make the lentils and sauce.
- Cook the lentils: Cook the lentils according to your brand’s package’s instructions- I used TruRoots, so the following instructions are based off of THOSE lentils. Fill a large pot with 3 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add in the lentils, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 4 minutes covered. Then remove from heat and leave covered for another 2-3 minutes. Once cooked, drain the lentils.
- Prep the garlic:Slice the top off of the half of the garlic bulb, drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt. Then wrap tightly in parchment paper or tinfoil, prepping for baking.
- Bake the lentils and garlic:When there’s 20 minutes left of the baking time on the sweet potatoes, remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, and add the lentils. Toss the lentils with the sweet potatoes to coat them in the seasonings. Make a spot in the corner of the baking sheet, and place the prepped garlic bulb. Place the baking sheet into the oven to bake for another 20 minutes (or until the garlic is aromatic and the sweet potatoes are caramelized and soft). Remove from the oven when baked.
- While baking:Make the sauce by whisking together the parsley, tahini, lime, olive oil, cumin, salt, and pepper. Then add in the water, and whisk until you reach your desired texture. When the garlic is done roasting, we’ll add that to the sauce.
- Finish the sauce:When you’ve removed the baking sheet from the oven, use oven mitts to squeeze the roasted garlic into the sauce, and mash and whisk until combined.
- Plate & serve:Add the sweet potatoes and lentils to a large bowl. Drizzle with the tahini sauce, saving some extra to drizzle on top for finishing. Toss the lentils and sweet potatoes together with the sauce. Then top with desired toppings and drizzle any remaining sauce on top. Serve immediately and enjoy!
- Storage:Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge.
Notes
Tahini:If you prefer, you can also swap in an equal amount of cashew butter or almond butter.
Veggie options:If you’d like to add some greens to the dish, you can add washed and chopped kale, chopped zucchini, or chopped Brussels sprouts to the baking sheet in Step 6. The Brussels sprouts might need more time to cook.
