Warm Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad with Lemon Tahini
Roasted sweet potato cubes and crisp paprika chickpeas from one pan, tipped hot over baby kale and finished with a pale lemon tahini dressing. Served warm, on purpose.
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes scrubbed and cut into ¾-inch cubes, skin on
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas drained, rinsed and patted very dry
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ small red onion sliced thin
- 4 cups baby kale packed
- ⅓ cup pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley roughly chopped
For the Lemon Tahini Dressing
- ⅓ cup tahini well stirred
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice from about 1 large lemon, fresh
- 1 small clove garlic grated
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons cold water up to 6, to thin
Instructions
Roast the Vegetables
- Heat the oven to 425F. Toss the sweet potato cubes with 1 ½ tablespoons of the olive oil, the cumin, salt and pepper. Spread them over two thirds of a large sheet pan with space between them.
- Roast 20 minutes without touching them. Moving them early is what leaves you with pale, steamed potato instead of caramelized edges.
- Meanwhile, dry the chickpeas thoroughly between two towels, pressing firmly. Toss them with the remaining ½ tablespoon oil and the smoked paprika.
- At 20 minutes, pull the pan, turn the sweet potato cubes, and tip the chickpeas onto the empty third of the pan. Return to the oven for 15 minutes more, until the potato edges are dark and the chickpeas are firm-shelled.
Make the Lemon Tahini
- Whisk the tahini, lemon juice, grated garlic, maple syrup and salt together in a small bowl. It will seize into a stiff paste. This is normal.
- Add cold water one tablespoon at a time, whisking hard after each. Around the third tablespoon it turns pale and smooth. Keep going to 4 to 6 tablespoons total, until it pours off the whisk in a ribbon that sinks back in about two seconds. Taste, and keep it sharply lemony.
Build the Bowl
- Spread the baby kale across the bottom of a wide serving bowl.
- Let the roasting pan sit 3 to 4 minutes, then tip the hot sweet potato and chickpeas over the greens so they half wilt underneath.
- Add the sliced red onion, then spoon the lemon tahini across the top in wide ribbons rather than in one pool.
- Finish with the pumpkin seeds and parsley, fold gently twice at the table, and serve immediately while it is still warm.
Notes
- Warm, not hot: rest the pan 3 to 4 minutes before building, or the kale goes past wilted.
- Dry the chickpeas hard: crisp chickpeas are a moisture problem, not a heat problem.
- Chickpeas join late: a full 35 minutes turns them into pebbles.
- The dressing seizes before it thins: add cold water a tablespoon at a time and keep whisking, and never add oil to fix it.
- Greens go in the bowl first: they need the heat falling on them from above.
- Store the components separately: vegetables 4 days, dressing 1 week in a jar. Never store it assembled.
- Reheat: 8 minutes at 400F on a sheet pan, then build over fresh greens.