Sweetgreen Harvest Bowl {Copycat Recipe}

Craving your favorite Sweetgreen Harvest Bowl at home? This easy copycat recipe brings together all the cozy fall flavors like kale, wild rice, roasted chicken, sweet potatoes, apples, and goat cheese, for a delicious, satisfying salad you can make yourself any time.

Jump to:

• 🧡 Why this recipe works
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🍎 Tips for making Harvest Bowl
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• 🥗 How to meal prep
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

If you're a regular customer, it's highly likely you have a favorite Sweetgreen salad or bowl. And that fave may even change with the seasons and menu swaps.

Despite the seasonal name, the Sweetgreen Harvest Bowl is actually a year-round favorite for many. It's part salad thanks to the greens and part bowl thanks to the wild rice blend.

But it's also packed with flavorful roasted chicken, roasted sweet potato rounds, apples, goat cheese, and almonds. And topped off with a balsamic vinaigrette.

If you don't have a Sweetgreen near you or want to save a little money, you can easily make the Harvest Bowl at home! My copycat recipe tastes just like the real thing and can be meal prepped for an easy take-to-work lunch.

🧡 Why this recipe works

It perfectly matches Sweetgreen's: I worked to match each and every element of the actual Harvest Bowl as best as I could. With kale, wild rice, roasted chicken, sweet potatoes, apples, goat cheese, and almonds, this bowl matches the flavor and texture balance of the original bowl.

Awesome meal prep option: each component of the bowl (kale, chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, dressing) can be made in advance and stored separately, making this ideal for easy lunches or dinners throughout the week.

Nutritious and tasty: we've all been fooled by salads that are delicious, but not very nutritious. And vise versa. But this salad bowl has it all. It's packed with protein, fiber, healthy fats, and complex carbs, plus it has so much delicious fall flavor.

Easy to customize: There are so many swaps you can make in this recipe to make the bowl match perfectly to your tastes. You could swap apples for pears, use feta instead of goat cheese, or throw in roasted squash. Plus, there are lots of shortcuts you can take to make the recipe even easier.

🗒 Ingredients

This recipe may seem a little complicated since it has so many components, but it's actually really easy to put together. Plus, lots can be done in advance and I'll even offer shortcuts for you to take.

If you're making the entire Harvest Bowl from scratch, here's everything you need (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Shredded curly kale
• Avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oil
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Salt
• Cooked wild rice blend
• Roasted chicken: I'll share my recipe for Sweetgreen's roasted chicken in this post
• Roasted sweet potatoes: I'll share my recipe for Sweetgreen's roasted sweet potatoes in this post
• Honeycrisp or gala apple
• Crumbled goat cheese
• Chopped roasted almonds
• Balsamic vinaigrette dressing: I'll share my recipe for Sweetgreen's balsamic vinaigrette in this post

For the roasted chicken:

• Chicken breast
• Salt & pepper
• Paprika
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oil
• Coconut aminos or soy sauce

For the roasted sweet potatoes:

• Sweet potato
• Avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Maple syrup

For the balsamic vinaigrette dressing:

• Balsamic vinaigrette
• Avocado oil or extra-virgin olive oil
• Dijon mustard
• Honey
• Salt & pepper

🍎 Tips for making Harvest Bowl

• Sweetgreen's roasted chicken is made with a "umami" blend and I decided to use a seasoning blend with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper, and coconut aminos (you can also use soy sauce) for a flavor punch.

• I recommend letting the chicken breast marinate for at least 30 minutes before roasting it.

• To make roasted sweet potatoes similar to Sweetgreen's, I recommend leaving the peels on and cutting the potatoes into half moon shapes that are ¼"-½" thick.

• I toss the potatoes in a little bit of maple sugar to help them caramelize a bit.

• Sweetgreen's kale is always very tender, so I highly recommend massaging your kale. Just put the kale in a bowl and add oil, lemon juice, and salt. Using your hands, gently massage kale for 1-2 minutes, until it softens and turns a darker green. This makes a huge difference!

• Sweetgreen used to use sunflower oil, but now they exclusively use extra-virgin olive oil and avocado oil. You can use either in the balsamic vinaigrette, depending on what you like and what you have on hand.

• I always recommend making homemade salad dressings in a jar. Just add ingredients, cover jar, and shake to combine.

• While most of the components of this salad can be prepped in advance, I recommend chopping the apple right before serving so it stays fresh and doesn't brown.

• And wait to drizzle the dressing until you're ready to serve the salad. Start with just a little and add more as desired.

This salad is a true fall delight! But with ingredients you can get any time of year, I can see myself making this at home throughout the spring and summer, too.

It's not only a pretty bowl, but it's packed with nutritious ingredients that have lots of flavor and are anything but boring.

My fall lunches alternate between the Harvest Bowl and my fave sweet potato chili.

🎉 Variations on recipe

If you love the idea of this salad, but want to make some swaps or use some store-bought ingredients, no problem! Here are some ideas:

• Sub in rotisserie chicken, grilled steak, roasted turkey, roasted salmon, shrimp, or crispy chickpeas (for a vegetarian version).
• Instead of kale, feel free to use baby spinach, arugula, or even a mix of spring greens. Skip the massaging step if you're not using kale.
• If you want to skip the goat cheese, you can use feta, blue cheese, or even shredded sharp cheddar.
• Instead of walnuts, you can use roasted pecans, pumpkin seeds, or candied walnuts.
• Instead of or in addition to the apples, you add pears, pomegranate arils, dried cranberries, or any other seasonal fruit.
• Butternut squash is a great swap for the sweet potato
• If you don't have a wild rice blend, you can use quinoa, farro, brown rice, or even leftover white rice.
• Use the dressing of your choice or feel free to use store-bought balsamic vinaigrette.

🥗 How to meal prep

If you're making the entire Harvest Bowl from scratch, like I am here, it may feel like a bit of a lofty project to make for lunch. But you can meal prep each of the components and then just toss together when you're ready to enjoy!

Here's what I recommend for batching the components:

• Roast chicken breasts and sweet potatoes at once.
• Cook a big pot of wild rice blend.
• Shake up a jar of vinaigrette.
• Prep the kale (wash, chop, and massage with oil/lemon/salt).

Keep everything in individual airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days.

When you're ready to enjoy a Sweetgreen Harvest Bowl, just layer kale and rice, then top with the chicken, sweet potatoes, chopped apple, goat cheese, almonds, and drizzle of dressing.

You can certainly warm the chicken and sweet potato before eating if you want; but it's also delicious cold!

If you want to bring this salad to work, you can assemble it in an airtight container ahead of time, aside from adding the apple and dressing.

Do you have a favorite Sweetgreen salad or bowl? I'm also a big fan of the Hummus Crunch and Kale Caesar.

Let me know if you make your own Harvest Bowl at home in the comments below!

📖 Recipe