This Spooky Halloween Spinach Salad is sure to create excitement and happy bellies too, this holiday season. It is a super fun and nutritious way to celebrate! It’s filled with roasted purple potatoes, cucumbers, walnuts, vegan feta, and other goodies.
This blog post is sponsored by Sprouts Farmers Market.
If you’re looking for a fun recipe to make this October, that you can enjoy all season long, this Spooky Halloween Spinach Salad is for you! This salad is so festive, with green and purple spooky colors. It also has lots of variety when it comes to ingredients. There’s savory purple sweet potatoes and vegan feta, along with pops of sweetness from the dried cranberries, and a bit of crunch from toasted walnuts and cucumbers.
You can find all the goodies to make this Spooky Halloween Spinach Salad at Sprouts Farmers Market! I love shopping at Sprouts this time of year for all things delicious! From awesome seasonal finds, to my go-to products, I am always in for a treat. I picked up the beautiful, fresh produce, as well as vegan feta and mayo, and the walnuts from the Bulk Department. There’s seriously so much to choose from at Sprouts, whether it’s pantry staples, fresh produce, or plant-based products that you’re looking for.
And how fun are these cucumber “jack o lanterns”? You can make them super simple too, and all you need is a small knife to make them. The Halloween colors get a green boost from the green spinach, scallions, and creamy avocado-dill dressing. We use cavatappi pasta to make these yummy creepy-crawly shapes. Shredded red cabbage and dried cranberries add some beautiful purple color as well. I think it is SO cool that this salad is so festive, purely using colors from nature.
How This Spooky Halloween Spinach Salad Comes Together
This yummy and colorful salad is a cinch to prepare! The potatoes roast in the oven while the pasta is cooking. While those do their thing, you will prepare the dressing and chop your veggies. The breakdown goes like this…
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (convect/fan) to roast the potatoes, and put on a pot of water to boil for the pasta.
Roasting the purple sweet potatoes: Start by peeling the sweet potato and slicing the potato cross-wise to make slices around 1/2 cm thick. Transfer them to a baking tray lined with parchment paper and drizzle with avocado oil, toss, and sprinkle with half the salt. Roast them for 15 minutes, toss, and sprinkle with the remaining salt. I find that potatoes need quite a bit of salt, but feel free to adjust the amount to your taste. Continue to roast the potatoes for 5 to 10 minutes until they are tender, and cook longer if you’d like them to start to crisp. Then remove the tray from the oven.
Cooking the pasta: Bring a pot of water to boil. When the water boils, add the cavatappi pasta to the water along with a teaspoon or two of salt, then stir. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, then rinse the pasta under cool water and let the pasta drain.
Prepping the other goods: While the potatoes and pasta are cooking, prep the veggies. Slice the cucumbers, but not too thin because we want them to hold their shape after cutting little faces into them. You can cut faces into as many of the cucumber pieces as you’d like. Also thinly slice the red cabbage and the scallions. Add all dressing ingredients into a food processor and simply blend until smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor with a spatula if needed. Mix just enough dressing with the cooked pasta to lightly coat it, and serve the remaining dressing with the salad.
Add the spinach to a serving bowl or platter, and top with the pasta, potatoes, walnuts, dried cranberries, vegan feta, red cabbage, scallions, and cucumbers.
Other Delicious Salad Recipes
Avocado & Grilled Vegetable Salad
Peach Avocado Salad with Lentils & Quinoa
Orzo Vegetable Salad with Creamy Vegan Honey Mustard
If you give this Spooky Halloween Spinach Salad a try, I would love to see it! You can tag me on Instagram @janetsmunchmeals and comment here!
Spooky Halloween Spinach Salad
Ingredients
- 2 large purple sweet potato
- 1 tbsp. avocado oil
- ½ tsp. kosher salt divided
- 1 ¾ cups uncooked cavatappi pasta
- 5 oz. baby spinach
- ½ seedless cucumber sliced
- 1/3 cup walnuts toasted
- 3 tbsp. dried cranberries
- ¼ cup vegan feta crumbled
- 3 tbsp. thinly sliced scallions
- ½ cup packed red cabbage, thinly sliced
Avocado Dill Dressing:
- 1/2 large avocado
- 2 tbsp. fresh dill
- 1 tbsp. dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp. agave nectar
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- ¼ tsp. kosher salt
- ¼ tsp. black pepper
- ¼ tsp. garlic powder
- ¼ cup vegan mayo
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (convect/fan). Peel the purple sweet potato and make crosswise sliced around ½ cm thick. Then cut each slice into 4 pieces. Place pieces onto a large baking tray, drizzle with 1 tbsp. avocado oil, and toss. Sprinkle with ¼ tsp. kosher salt and roast for 15 min. Toss, sprinkle with remaining ¼ tsp. kosher salt, and roast another 5 to 10 min until tender and beginning to crisp.
- Cook 1 ¾ cups cavatappi pasta in salted water until al dente, according to package directions, then drain and rinse under cool water.
- Add all Avocado Dill Dressing ingredients (1/2 large avocado, 2 tbsp. fresh dill, 1 tbsp. dijon mustard, 1 tbsp. agave nectar, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, ¼ tsp. kosher salt, ¼ tsp. black pepper, ¼ tsp. garlic powder, ¼ cup vegan mayo) to a food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down sides as needed.
- Add 5 oz. baby spinach to a serving bowl or platter. Carefully cut faces into some of the cucumber slices using a small paring knife, if desired. Top the spinach with cucumbers, purple potatoes, 1/3 cup toasted walnuts, 3 tbsp. dried cranberries, ¼ cup crumbled vegan feta, 3 tbsp. thinly sliced scallions, and ½ cup (packed) thinly sliced red cabbage.
- Mix the pasta with just enough dressing to lightly coat it, then top salad with the pasta. Serve salad with remaining dressing.