Kale, Sweet Potato & Bacon Salad

An easy moreish dinner idea with kale, sweet potato, bacon and more. With 20 minutes of prep and 40 minutes of layered roasting time at 200°c fan, it delivers four generous portions that can be served hot, warm, or cold. A recipe like this is simple, yet so incredibly delicious. 

Salad anyone?

This is the first salad recipe I have published in the 10+ years of running my blog, but I am only posting it because of the demand. I posted a story for this salad on my instagram a while ago and I can’t cope with the amount of you asking for it – so here you are. This recipe is simple but delicious, and I make it so many times on such a regular basis. 

It’s got a balance of sweet, salty, crunchy and soft – but also is incredible when served hot, warm, or even cold – and, like all salads, is adaptable to what you prefer. With a savoury recipe like this, you can adapt and change it (notes in each section below with tips for that), but honestly, I make it basically weekly now as written and you will love it too. 

Sweet potato and more

I always start making this recipe by roasting off the sweet potato. I chop up the sweet potato into inch sized cubes, and add them to a baking/roasting tray. I drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle on some smoked paprika and some dried thyme – because these are particular flavours that I like. You can swap these up to whatever flavours you like to add to potatoes, or even just leave it as salt and pepper – roast these for about 10 minutes 

After about ten minutes, I add on some slightly chopped up red onion – I tend to cut these into about 6 bits each as they do break down more themselves in the oven and as you mix the ingredients about. Another little drizzle of oil and salt and pepper, and the first drizzle of honey, but again, these are optional or changeable. Roast for another 20 minutes, making sure to mix things up half way through 

After the red onion has been in for 2 minutes, and as long as my sweet potato is basically cooked through, I also add in some tender stem broccoli, partly because it’s probably my favourite vegetable, but I love the most green I can get in a salad, and I timing wise it works to add it towards the end as it doesn’t need long at all 

The kale leaf base

I wanted to use kale as the base of this salad, in terms of the ‘green’ because I adore it. I often make salads with various types of lettuce leaves, or anything similar such as rocket and spinach, but I adore kale that has been roasted in the oven and become a little crunchy. As the rest of the salad is a ‘roasted’ style salad, it works to use the kale because it needs the oven time (in my opinion)

I tend to add the kale to the top of the tray (you do need a large tray), but the kale does quickly cook down and reduce in volume after it’s gone into the oven. It only needs about 2-3 minutes, before it starts to catch, but usually it’s enough to cook the kale to an al dente texture that I love. 

The perfect bacon

Whilst everything is in its various stages of cooking in the oven, I prep my bacon. You can do this on the tray, but I find there is much better control to prep and cook the bacon separately, so that you can make it delicious crispy, and the perfect bacon.

I add my bacon lardons to a dry pan, and heat over a medium-high heat so that the fat can render, but also the bacon has become crispy. When the bacon is 90% cooked, I drizzle over a little honey and cook a little more so the bacon becomes sticky, delicious and heavenly. 

Serving the salad 

I usually just tip all of the contents of the tray into a large bowl, and then sprinkle the bacon bits on top. Usually everything is seasoned enough at this point, so the only extra that I add now is a drizzle of a thick balsamic glaze, because I adore it and it works wonders with the rest of the recipe. 

As mentioned above, this recipe is delicious when served hot out of the oven, or even slightly lukewarm warm, or when it has cooled completely. It’s entirely up to you. It makes a delicious main course, and can likely serve 4, or you can have it as a side – really how much it feeds depends on appetites of those involved. 

There are various other toppings you can add that I have seen on other recipes such as sprinkled on cheeses such as crumbled feta, some chopped nuts such as cashews or almonds, or whatever you want. 

Swaps and changes

• Kale – collard greens are a good substitute, but also just any chopped lettuce will work if you don’t want to roast any greens. 
• Sweet potatoes – you can swap to regular potatoes, or chopped up new potatoes 
• Bacon – can be left out, or swapped to another meat like gammon or similar. Chicken is also good too. 
• Red onion – white onion works as well, but shallots would be my swap preference 
• Honey – maple syrup is a good substitute 
• Broccoli – you can use regular broccoli over tender stem, or swap to something else such as asparagus 

Related recipes

I may have said this once or twice before but believe it or not I actually prefer savoury food over sweet, shocking I know! I have some delicious savoury recipes on my website from homemade lasagne to my chicken, leek and bacon pie… all of these recipes can be found in the savoury section on my website.