

Our Hawaii trip had two distinct halves. When we transitioned from the loud, polished, jam-packed, super-happening Waikiki beach over to a cute cottage on the north shore of Oahu, I started to feel like I was in my truest of true elements. You could get a smoothie almost anywhere. Every restaurant had a thoughtful and complete vegan option. People were doing literally everything outside. Cut offs and a bikini seemed to pass for full dress almost everywhere. You could always hear/see the ocean. It was total nonstop bliss mode.

When we were staying there, Mark and I ate at this one modern hippie-dip café a couple times. They had fresh juice, tons of thoughtful, all-vegetarian/vegan options, a detectable Lionel Richie decor theme, and it didn’t smell like wheatgrass in the slightest. You actually felt kinda cool being in there. I love that this experience is becoming more common with health-conscious restaurants (as health-conscious restaurants themselves become more common yay!).

Anyway, the one night that we went there for dinner, I started with a creamy chickpea soup that was garnished with confit lemon and smoky paprika. It had a hot hummus vibe, but in a way that I really enjoyed. Mark had a mixed green salad with all kinds of spiralized vegetables, roasted beets and a chipotle miso dressing. I kept dipping my fork into that salad. The dressing was bomb.

Since we’ve been back, I’ve been using my spiralizer in earnest. Something about these previews of Spring-like weather, and the general craving for something lighter. It’s also just so much fun to turn a vegetable into a heap of noodles. I’ve played around with julienned raw sweet potatoes in a slaw/salad before, but never as the main component of a dish. It’s so delicious! The “noodles” are a little sweet and lightly crisp while still retaining that springy/stretchy noodle-like quality. I crave sweet potatoes with chipotle/adobo regularly, so I knew that this combination could be a match made in heaven. I went a bit creamy with the chipotle miso dressing, starting with a base of raw cashew butter. Once you sprinkle in some wisps of fresh basil, golden toasted almond slivers, sprouts, and shelled edamame, you’ve got a bowl of very colourful and happy food. I think that might be a theme around here ;)

SWEET POTATO NOODLE SALAD WITH CHIPOTLE MISO SAUCE RECIPE

Print the recipe here!

Serves: 4

Notes: If you don’t have a spiralizer, you could follow this handy tutorial from Food52 for julienning the sweet potatoes instead. I haven’t tried it, but if you’re allergic to nuts, I imagine tahini or sunflower seed butter would substitute nicely for the cashew. From there, you could garnish with the corresponding seed in place of the slivered almonds.

Update: there have been a lot of question/comments about eating the sweet potato noodles raw. I always invite people to do their own research and decide what is best for them. I won’t ever say that something is inherently good or bad for anyone’s body/lifestyle because it’s not my place to do so. Having said ALL of that, if you still want to make this recipe (but are nervous about consuming the sweet potatoes raw), you could lightly steam or sauté the noodles before you toss the salad together. The texture will just be slightly different :)



CHIPOTLE MISO SAUCE INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon raw cashew butter

1 teaspoon light/mellow miso

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 canned chipotle preserved in adobo, minced + 1 teaspoon of the adobo

1 small clove garlic, finely grated with a rasp/microplane

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil



SALAD INGREDIENTS

2 medium sweet potatoes (roughly 1 ⅓ lbs/600 grams), peeled

1 cup frozen shelled edamame

1 healthy sprig fresh basil, finely sliced (approximately ¼ cup sliced basil)

handful of sprouts that you like (I used broccoli sprouts)

¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted



Make the dressing: In a small (soup/cereal) bowl, combine the lemon juice, cashew butter, and miso. Mash the cashew butter and miso into the lemon juice using the back of a spoon or small spatula. Once you have a cloudy and unified liquid, add the maple syrup, chipotle, adobo, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Whisk the mixture vigorously until you have a smooth sauce. Check it for seasoning and set aside.



Set your spiralizer up with the blade that makes spaghetti-like strands. Sometimes this is called a “shredding blade.” Run the sweet potatoes through the spiralizer. Transfer the sweet potato “noodles” to a large bowl.



Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Place the frozen edamame in the pot and boil for 3 minutes. Drain the edamame and rinse. Set aside.



Toss the sweet potato noodles with half of the chipotle miso sauce, half the edamame, half the basil, half the sprouts, some salt, and pepper. Toss to combine. Then, drizzle the remaining sauce on top. Garnish the noodles with the remaining edamame, basil, sprouts, and slivered almonds. Serve immediately.