Warm Sweet Potato Noodles, Cabbage and Lentil Salad
Sweet potato noodles salad with cabbage and lentils is a warm and hearty salad that’s perfect for fall and winter. It’s vibrant, nutrient-packed and loaded with flavor thanks to sautéed onions and Swiss chard along with a Dijon vinaigrette. Fresh herbs and toasted pine nuts finish it off!
There’s quite a bit of protein in lentils, making this salad a complete meal on it’s own. But if you serve it up as a side salad it would pair wonderfully with my Carne Asada, Dijon Baked Salmon or Sweet and Smoky Beef Brisket.
Spiralized Sweet Potato Noodles
I’m such a fan of my spiralizer and the myriad of ways you can use spiralized veggies. You’ve previously seen me turn spiralized sweet potato noodles into Curly Sweet Potato Fries and Spiralized Sweet Potato Egg Nests. But today we’re making a vegan and vegetarian sweet potato noodles salad!
Sweet potatoes, when spiralized on a thin blade as you see below, can be used in both cold and warm salads. Many folks forget that you can definitely eat sweet potato raw.
You can also spiralize sweet potatoes ahead of time as I show on my Winter Meal Prep video (coming next week). But when the weather’s cold outside, a quick sauté of sweet potato noodles makes for a warm salad option (and more tender noodles)
Sweet Potato Noodles Salad
This sweet potato noodles salad is loaded with veggies. In addition to the sweet potato noodles, we’ve got sautéed onion, Swiss chard and red cabbage. Sautéed onions that are caramelized are the best and I’m such a fan of Swiss chard. You know my motto, the more greens the better!
To that we’re adding green lentils for heartiness and protein. Just 1/2 cup of cooked lentils provides 12 grams of protein. Looking for a meatless Monday salad recipe? This sweet potato noodles salad is a great option!
To finish off the salad, we’re adding a bunch of chopped herbs (I love a combination of parsley and cilantro) and toasted pine nuts. Then we’re drizzling the tastiest, most flavorful Dijon vinaigrette on top and tossing it all together. Hearty, nourishing, filling, warming and delicious – this salad ticks all the boxes. Enjoy!
More Healthy Salad Recipes
- Roasted Butternut Squash, Romaine and Goat Cheese Salad
- Broccoli Salad
- Pulled Pork, Cabbage and Arugula Salad
- Greek Salad
- Wild Rice and Arugula Salad
Looking for another recipe with lentils? Give my lentil soup a try!
Sweet Potato Noodles Salad with Cabbage and Lentils
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup green lentils
- 4 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 piece kombu seaweed, approx 4 inches long
- 1 sweet potato, spiralized
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
- 4 leaves Swiss chard, sliced
- 2 cups sliced red cabbage
- 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
- 1 bunch parsley or cilantro
- 1 recipe Dijon Vinaigrette
Instructions
- Add the lentils to a fine mesh sieve. Examine and remove any bad ones and rinse under the faucet.
- Place the lentils in a small pot along with the water, bay leaf and kombu. The water should cover the lentils by about 2 inches. Bring the lentils to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and cook for 20 minutes. The water should be a very gentle simmer with very few bubbles.
- After the lentils have cooked for about 5 minutes, add the olive oil and onion to a very large pan and heat on medium. Sauté the onions for 2-3 minutes or until translucent. You can sauté them until they've fully caramelized as well.
- Add the sliced Swiss chard to the pan and sauté for a minute. Then add the spiralized sweet potato and sauté for 3 minutes, using tongs to turn them. Lastly, add the sliced red cabbage to the pan and cook for one more minute, while tossing and stirring. Then transfer the salad to a large serving bowl.
- At this point, the lentils should be nearly done. Drain and rinse them and add to the salad.
- Top the salad with the toasted pine nuts, fresh herbs and Dijon vinaigrette. Toss everything together and serve warm.
Lisa's Tips
- Spiralized sweet potato noodles can be very long. Use kitchen scissors to trim them before cooking, making them easier to eat.
- Adding kombu seaweed to the lentils while cooking not only adds a great umami flavor, but it helps digestibility by reducing phytic acid in the lentils.
- For more vegetables you can spiralize, make sure to watch my Spiralizer Beginner’s Guide video. And this is the spiralizer I’ve used for years.
Sounds great!
Hope you enjoy!
Outstanding dish! Used the spiralizer for the sweet potato and the red cabbage. Worked great.
Hi Lisa!!!
This salad is magnificent as all your recipies of course!!!
Thanks!!!
This sounds good, but where do I find kombu seaweed?
Hi Linda – I’ve linked the kombu seaweed in the notes of the recipe card.
First downshiftology recipe I’ve tried and it was spectacular! Not to mention very easy to prep. After a challenging bike ride it hit the spot…Looking forward to many more downshiftology meals. 💕
Hi Sherryn – Congrats on your first Downshiftology meal! I’m so glad you enjoyed this salad and can’t wait to see what you whip up next.
This is so delicious, but a bit dangerous. I ate way too much not I can barely move.
Hi Bahar – Glad you enjoyed this recipe :)
This sounds like such a delicious meal but I was wondering, before I get started, do you have any suggestions for turing this recipe into a meal prep recipe? I’d like to have this for lunch everyday but I’ll be taking it to work and re-heating it in a microwave. I’ve always baked sweet potatoes in the oven so this method is a new one for me. Thank you in advance :)
Hi Rachel – Of course! This recipe is actually part of my Fall Meal Prep 😊 You can take a look at that video on my website or Youtube and see how I prep each ingredient and put it together the day of (which will be either the night before work or the morning of).
Hi Lisa, can you suggest a different type of lettuce other than swiss chard to use? This looks like an amazing “meatless Monday” meal.
Hi Judy – If you want to switch out the swiss chard, you can use any leafy greens of your choice! I might suggest spinach, mustard greens, tuscan kale, or bok choy :)
Lisa, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this salad!! Made it for dinner tonight and was a big hit. My husband, who doesn’t like sweet potatoes, gobbled it up. It is a keeper. I had been thinking of getting rid of my spiralizer because I hadn’t used it for so long. But not now. Thanks again!
Hi Sue – I’m so glad you and your husband loved this sweet potato salad! I highly recommend not throwing out your spiralizer :) There’s so many vegetables you can spiralize and a wide variety of dishes to make. Take a peek at my spiralizer post here: https://downshiftology.com/spiralizer-beginners-guide/
This recipe is came up under Whole30. I understand that lentils are a legumes, so perhaps this is miscategorized? Can you suggest a replacement for the lentils in this recipe? Thanks.
Hi Nancy – thanks for the catch! Yes, I’ll remove the Whole30 category from this post. For an alternative I think broccoli would be great. :)
How long could this be stored in the fridge if I want to make it ahead and eat it for lunch during the week?
This is a pretty hardy salad, so I’d say 3-5 days.
I’m wondering what one piece of Korbu means. I bought one piece of kombu, it’s about a foot long. Do I use that whole foot long piece of kombu?
Great point Barbara – I’ll make sure to clarify it in the description. I used one piece of kombu about 4 inches long (and it was about 2 inches wide). Hope that helps!
This looks amazing! I’ll definitely be trying this week. :)
Wonderful! I hope you enjoy the recipe Kari. :)