This creamy sweet potato and roasted red pepper spread is one of my all-time favorites for sandwiches, snack boards, wraps, and more. It’s sweet, savory, and silky smooth. Sweet potato contributes to the spread’s richness, while red peppers and tahini create an almost whipped texture. I especially love to serve the spread in a sandwich with homemade vegan tempeh bacon, roasted red peppers, and peppery arugula!

Every now and then, I become tired of my customary rotation of dips and resolve to blend up something new.

This delightful sweet potato and red pepper spread is what resulted from one of those forays. Today, it’s a favorite of mine, especially for sandwiches.

Sweet potato and tahini give this spread a lovely, silky, light texture. The roasted red peppers lend a vibrant orange color and tangy, salty notes to offset the sweetness of the sweet potatoes.

If you’re looking to try something new for veggie crudités, appetizer boards, sandwiches, or wraps, then I highly recommend this creamy, sweet and savory mixture.

A different base ingredient

So often, I use beans, nuts, or seeds as the base for a dip or spread.

Chickpeas get turned into hummus, of course. I blend cannellini beans into my roasted garlic white bean dip with tahini.

Soaked, un-roasted cashews become cashew cheese, while pumpkin seeds can join forces with lentils to create a spread that’s ultra-nutritious and earthy.

But what about sweet potatoes?

Actually, sweet potatoes are a fantastic base ingredient for dips. They make a mean hummus, if you ask me, and they’re a great addition to cashew cheese, too.

What makes sweet potatoes so perfect for dips and spreads is their creamy consistency, which becomes almost silky when it’s processed or blended. In this recipe, tahini provides an additional creamy component.

Sweet potatoes + roasted red peppers = a perfect pairing

This red pepper spread recipe illustrates my fondness for the pairing of sweet potatoes and red peppers.

I love how their sweet flavors meld and mingle. When jarred, roasted red peppers are involved, there’s also the addition of a tangy, salty, briney taste.

I combine these ingredients in other recipes, including my roasted red pepper sweet potato tortillas and my sweet potato red pepper soup.

In addition to featuring an ingredient combination that I already love, the red pepper spread was inspired years ago by cookbook author Myra Kornfeld.

Kornfeld’s cookbook, The Healthy Hedonist, features a roasted red pepper dip in which tahini “provides the fat necessary for a smooth texture, but the flavor is unobtrusive.”

When I first discovered this recipe, I made it right away; it featured so many of my favorite ingredients, and it didn’t disappoint.

Over the years, I’ve modified the dip and spread, and the version that I’m sharing in this post is the one that has stood the test of time.

Other dip ingredients

Aside from the veggies, the other primary ingredient in the red pepper spread is tahini.

A mere three tablespoons of sesame seed paste is enough to create richness in the dip. The tahini adds healthy, unsaturated fats to the red pepper spread as well.

Yet, as Kornfeld notes, you won’t pick up on any of tahini’s tendency toward bitterness here. It does a lot for consistency without being very apparent from a flavor perspective.

Other ingredients in the red pepper spread: lemon (for brightness and acidity!), garlic, coriander, salt, and pepper.

Making sweet potato red pepper spread

Step 1: Bake or microwave your sweet potatoes

The most time-consuming step in making the sweet potato red pepper spread is to cook the sweet potatoes.

You’ll need their creamy interior, but not the skins. You can remove the skin portion after cooking.

You can do the cooking by baking the potatoes in the oven or microwaving them. Either way, prick the potatoes with a fork prior to cooking. They’ll need about 45-minutes in the oven and 6-8 minutes in the microwave.

Step 2: Scoop the flesh out of the sweet potatoes

Give the sweet potatoes a chance to cool enough to be handled. Then, cut them in half and scoop out their flesh. You should have about 1 cup / 200g of it.

Transfer the cooked sweet potato interior to a food processor fitted with the S blade.

Step 3: Transfer all ingredients to a food processor and blend

The next step in making your red pepper spread is so simple: add all other spread ingredients to your food processor.

Pulse them to incorporate, get the processor in motion, and process the spread until it’s super smooth and creamy. Add extra water as needed, to achieve a texture that you’re happy with.

Storing red pepper spread

Once processed and seasoned to taste, you can store the sweet potato red pepper spread in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.

A stellar vegan sandwich

You can of course use this spread for dipping vegetables or crackers or pita wedges.

But I happen to think it’s especially great in sandwiches, and here’s one of my favorite combinations thereto.

Between two slices of your favorite bread or toast add:

• A nice layer of the sweet potato red pepper spread
• Extra strips of roasted red bell pepper
• A big handful of arugula
• Strips of my baked, crispy tempeh bacon
• If you like, a small heap of quick pickled onions

Not only is this sandwich filling and delicious, it’s also packed with nutrition, including plant protein from the tempeh.

If you try it, I’d love to hear what you think!

Hope you’ll enjoy this versatile spread as much as I have.

xo