Cauliflower Sweet Potato Salad with Curry Cashew Dressing
Mar 21, 2020, Updated Nov 15, 2022
Roasted Cauliflower & Sweet Potato Salad with a creamy curry cashew dressing! This vibrant and fun salad is great for spring and summer! Vegan and gluten-free.
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Roasted Cauliflower Sweet Potato Salad with a creamy curry cashew dressing!
This flavorful salad is packed with so much flavor and will be a great salad for the warm days ahead. It is also vegan and gluten-free.
Say hello to my favorite salad these days!
It has all my favorite things- there’s cauliflower, sweet potato, cilantro, green onion and a dressing made with cashews!
What’s not to love? In fact, Sarvesh declared it as his favorite salad ever because he just happens to love everything in it too.
This is a great way to include veggies like cauliflower and sweet potato in your diet.
I had both veggies at home and I thought of roasting them for lunch.
But one thing led to another and I ended up making this salad which turned out really good and will be perfect for the warm days ahead.
This Cauliflower Sweet Potato Salad
✔ makes a great salad for lunches and even potlucks
✔ is vegan and gluten-free
✔ can be served cold or at room temperature so can be easily made ahead
✔ has roasted veggies tossed in a creamy cashew dressing
I am a veggie lover and roasted veggies are one of my favorite things to eat.
You can be sure that I roast some or the other veggie in my oven every other day.
Roasting bring out such wonderful flavors, isn’t it? Other than the star veggies aka cauliflower and sweet potatoes, this salad has some other wonderful ingredients too!
Make it crunchy! For me a salad needs to have some crunch, texture is so important.
Here, I used toasted pecans (which I toasted in a pan over stove-top) for 6 to 7 minutes until they were fragrant.
And then there are also the sliced red onions. Both these give the salad a nice crunch.
You can add other ingredients like pumpkin seeds too if you have them on hand.
Fresh herbs add to the flavor and I have used cilantro here. If you are not a cilantro fan, you can use parsley here or even basil will be okay.
I roasted the veggies with cumin and smoked paprika and while they were the oven, I made this easy cashew dressing.
So, now let’s talk about the dressing!
Curry Cashew Dressing
So, first thing this dressing is vegan. It has cashews, curry powder, garlic powder, lemon juice, maple syrup and salt.
Not a whole lot of ingredients but comes out really good. A tip about blending cashews, soak them in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes before blending them.
This way they are better incorporated and results in a creamier, smooth texture.
The recipes makes a lot more dressing than what is needed for the recipe. I was left with almost 1/2 cup of the dressing.
Just store the leftover dressing in a glass container and keep it refrigerated. You can use it any other salad.
You can add more flavors to this dressing by adding in some nutritional yeast if you want. It will give it a slight cheesy taste. I did not add it though.
More ways to use the salad? I had some leftovers and I used the salad as a filling in my tacos with cilantro chutney. It was so good you guys.
So yeah that’s another way to enjoy this salad.
Method
Pre-heat oven to 425 F degrees. Line a large baking sheet with aluminium foil and set aside.
1- Toss cauliflower florets and diced sweet potatoes with olive oil in a large bowl.
2- Then add the cumin powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder and salt.
3- Toss until the veggies are coated with the seasoning.
4- Transfer the veggies on to the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 425 F degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until cooked through.
5- While the veggies are in the oven, start making the dressing. To a high speed blender, add cashews (which were soaked in hot water for 15 minutes, then drained) with water, curry powder, garlic powder, salt, lemon juice and maple syrup.
6- Blend to a smooth consistency. You can taste test and adjust the seasoning at this point. You can also adjust the consistency of the dressing.
7- To a large bowl, now add the roasted veggies along with sliced red onion, toasted pecans, chopped green onions and cilantro.
8- Pour over the dressing. I did not use the entire dressing and was left with 1/2 cup of it. You can add more or less of the dressing as per your preference.
Toss the dressing with the salad.
Serve immediately or chill the cauliflower sweet potato salad in the fridge for 1 hour for the flavors to mix well together.
More Vegan Salads
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Cauliflower Sweet Potato Salad with Curry Cashew Dressing
Ingredients
- 4 cups cauliflower florets medium size florets from 1 medium head, 687 grams, measured after removing the leaves and stems
- 3 cups sweet potato diced, from 5 small sweet potatoes, around 525 grams
- 3 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin, 45 ml
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 medium red onion sliced
- 1/2 cup pecans toasted in a pan for 6-7 minutes until fragrant
- 3 stalks green onion chopped
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
Cashew Dressing
- 1 cup raw cashews 150 grams, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water or as needed, 180 ml + 30 ml
- 1.25 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 3-4 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup or add more to taste, 5 ml
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 425 F degrees. Line a large baking sheet with aluminium foil and set aside.
- Toss cauliflower florets and diced sweet potatoes with olive oil in a large bowl.
- Then add the cumin powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder and salt. Toss until the veggies are coated with the seasoning.
- Transfer the veggies on to the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 425 F degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until cooked through.
- While the veggies are in the oven, start making the dressing. To a high speed blender, add cashews (which were soaked in hot water for 15 minutes, then drained) with water, curry powder, garlic powder, salt, lemon juice and maple syrup.
- Blend to a smooth consistency. You can taste test and adjust the seasoning at this point. You can also adjust the consistency of the dressing.
- To a large bowl, now add the roasted veggies along with sliced red onion, toasted pecans, chopped green onions and cilantro.
- Pour over the dressing. I did not use the entire dressing and was left with 1/2 cup of it. You can add more or less of the dressing as per your preference.Toss the dressing with the salad.
- Serve immediately or chill the cauliflower sweet potato salad in the fridge for 1 hour for the flavors to mix well together.
Notes
- You can add other ingredients like pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, pistachios etc. to the salad too.Â
- The dressing makes more than needed for this recipe. Keep the dressing refrigerated and use in any other salad recipe.Â
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
oh wow. this is amazing! the only thing I didn’t have was the full amount of pecans, so I toasted what I had with some pumpkin seeds to make up the difference. this is SO GOOD. even without a fancy blender, the dressing comes out super-creamy and delicious. I love this so much! this recipe is unique, and so well-balanced with textures, colors & flavors.
so glad to know Diane!
Made this last night and was 10 out of 10. I added some some dried cranberry and pomegranate seeds and tossed in some coked black rice I had. It was so good that I have made more for tonight (as I had extra dressing) will have with some vegan stuffed peppers.(capsicum)
Thanks
glad to know!
I tried this today and it was delicious! I didn’t have curry powder so I used a mix of cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, red chilli powder and some mustard seeds. The burst of flavours was amazing. The charred taste of the roasted vegetables along with the creamy dressing is heavenly!
For a cashew-allergy, can you substitute sunflower seeds and/or pumpkin seeds in the dressing?
you can try, not sure how creamy the dressing will turn out though
I used ground almonds, worked a treat. Also roasted flaked almonds as I had no pecans. This dish has shot up to a family favourite upon its first appearance on our dinner table. So well rounded. Just make sure to do double or better triple the recipe amount because people will just continue eating.
so glad to hear 🙂
this is delicious! i doubled the spices and used about 2/3 of the dressing (which is, as she says, great on just about anything else). my new potluck go-to dish- thanks!
glad to know 🙂