Living in Arkansas where the rivers partially flow with ranch dressing, extra creamy potato salad is a de facto side dish with chicken, barbecue, and burgers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly about that life. But I wanted to mix things up and make a sweet potato salad for my recent honey chipotle crockpot pulled chicken recipe.
This southwest spin uses sweet potatoes over white potatoes and adds a bit more texture with buttery corn and black beans. As the name implies, it packs some spice in the creamy mixture that holds it all together. And thanks to a few lower fat ingredients, you can load up your plate without adding tons of calories.
Ingredients for Southwest Sweet Potato Salad
Here’s a quick rundown of everything you’ll need.
The Core Ingredients:
- sweet potatoes
- canned corn
- black beans
- picked jalapeño slices (optional)
- fat free Greek yogurt
- light mayo
Aside from the core ingredients, all you’ll need is a handful of spices. If you’re cooking with a minimal spice cabinet, I bet you’d be fine using taco seasoning instead.
The Spices You’ll Need:
- paprika
- chili, garlic, and onion powder
- black pepper
- cumin
- dried or freshly chopped cilantro (optional)
Final Recipe Notes
If you’d like to skip a step, you can buy frozen sweet potatoes that you can either steam or roast straight from frozen. Pictsweet has a line of frozen roasting vegetables that are around one pound each. Feel free to get creative with your sweet potato salad and add other ingredients like diced red onion, fresh jalapeño, or more spice if you’re a real heat fanatic.
And if you need some more protein ideas for pairing, check out my Mexican shredded chicken thighs or BBQ pulled chicken.
As always, don’t forget to let me know what you think about the recipe. Take a photo of your creation and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff. Or you can join my free Facebook group and share it with the Proton Party.
Southwest Sweet Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 15 oz can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
- 15 oz can Whole Kernel Corn, drained and rinsed
- 3 Tbsp Pickled Jalapeño Slices, diced (optional)
- 1 C 227g Fat Free Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 C 120g Light Mayo
- 1 Tbsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Dried Cilantro, or freshly chopped
Instructions
- Wash and peel (optional) the sweet potatoes before cutting into 1" cubes. Roast in an oven or air fry at 400F for 10-15 minutes to soften. You can also boil to soften. (Don't sweat precision. The potatoes just need to be soft all the way through.)
- Drain and rinse the black beans and corn in a strainer. Set aside.
- Mix the Greek yogurt, mayo, spices, and diced jalapeños together in a large bowl.
- Stir well before adding the sweet potatoes, corn, and black beans.
- Fold everything together and refrigerate for at least an hour to let the flavors develop and thicken. Serve chilled.
Notes
- Each serving has 2 Smart Points.
- You can use frozen sweet potatoes and corn if you'd rather. Just aim for similar proportions. (Nutrition facts may vary with ingredient changes.)
- 1 serving = 1/10th of the recipe. Sorry, I forgot to weigh the entire recipe before I helped myself to a serving or two or three. For accurate serving sizes, weigh your entire sweet potato salad after mixing and divide that weight by 10. If you need some extra guidance, check out my video guide on using a food scale for tracking macros.
so good and easy to make. Thank you!
so good and easy to make. Thank you!
This recipe is the perfect warm weather side dish. I love that it doesn’t need to be reheated so it is great to pack for lunches. Filling and flavorful! I paired with roasted chicken drumsticks and used all greek yogurt, no mayo.
This recipe is the perfect warm weather side dish. I love that it doesn’t need to be reheated so it is great to pack for lunches. Filling and flavorful! I paired with roasted chicken drumsticks and used all greek yogurt, no mayo.
Subbing for Celiac
No subbing needed here! Unfortunately this is one of the many recipes i’ve tried that didn’t work out as well as the others. I think it might have had to do with the spices I used being old. The texture of mine came out very grainy and the ratio of veggies to sauce was off. I think to troubleshoot this in the future for myself I would do more mayo, less greek yogurt, and less of both in general, for a lighter sauce coating. There’s nothing wrong fundamentally with this one – this is one that I tried at the beginning of my journey of making Mason’s recipes so theres a good possibility I wasn’t measuring things out correctly.
Subbing for Celiac
No subbing needed here! Unfortunately this is one of the many recipes i’ve tried that didn’t work out as well as the others. I think it might have had to do with the spices I used being old. The texture of mine came out very grainy and the ratio of veggies to sauce was off. I think to troubleshoot this in the future for myself I would do more mayo, less greek yogurt, and less of both in general, for a lighter sauce coating. There’s nothing wrong fundamentally with this one – this is one that I tried at the beginning of my journey of making Mason’s recipes so theres a good possibility I wasn’t measuring things out correctly.
Made for the Fourth of July and is absolutely delicious!
Made for the Fourth of July and is absolutely delicious!
This dish was really good. We aren’t big potato salad fans here, but the southwest twist made us enjoy it. It would be a great dish to take to a BBQ because even people not trying to eat healthy should like it.