Sweet Potato Black Bean Bowl

This might look like a salad, but this hearty sweet potato black bean bowl is a meal in itself. Drizzle some tangy-sweet dressing on top and dig in.

Jump to Recipe

This sweet potato black bean bowl is good for lunch or dinner, and you can serve it with the beans, quinoa, and sweet potatoes warm or cold – whichever way you like it. If you decide to take it to work or school, pack the sweet potatoes separately so they retain their crunchy texture. As with any salad that you eat on the go, add the salad dressing right before you eat it.

Ingredients

You’ll need the ingredients shown below:

• Sweet potatoes – Air fryer sweet potatoes add great flavor and crunch to this bowl.
• Quinoa – You can use any type of quinoa, but the tri-color variety looks good with the other ingredients.
• Black beans – Use canned black beans. If you’re not a fan of black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, or cannellini beans would work in this bowl.
• Lettuce – I used butter lettuce in this recipe, but I’ve made it with spinach also. The texture of butter lettuce works well in this bowl.
• Avocados – Smooth, creamy avocados go well with the other ingredients.
• Dressing – Drizzle on your choice of dressing. I chose Brianna’s honey-ginger vinaigrette. It combines sweet and tart flavors that complement but don’t overwhelm the other flavors in this bowl.

More about sweet potatoes

Besides tasting great, sweet potatoes are very nutritious. One sweet potato supplies more than 100% of your daily vitamin A requirement, and they supply potassium. They have lots of other health benefits. Read all about the goodness of sweet potatoes here.

Making Sweet Potato Black Bean Bowls

1. Cook the quinoa

• Cook the quinoa according to package instructions.
• Set it aside and let it cool to room temperature when it has completed cooking.

2. Air fry the sweet potatoes

• While the quinoa is cooking, peel the sweet potato and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
• Toss those pieces into a bowl and add a little oil and the spices.
• Pop the sweet potato pieces into the air fryer and get them going.
• Cook the potatoes in the air fryer for 12 minutes on 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Prepare the rest of the ingredients

• Drain and rinse the black beans.
• Wash the lettuce (if needed) and pull out the number of leaves that you want to add to the bowl.
• Peel and slice the avocado.

4. Arrange the bowl

• Arrange the lettuce, sweet potato, quinoa, and fresh avocado slices.
• Drizzle on the dressing.

A Note About Air Frying

I recently purchased a new toaster oven that doubles as an air fryer. I didn’t set out to purchase one, and I had wondered if air fryers were some trendy appliance that I would try once and soon forget. However, now that I’ve tried it a few times, I expect I’ll use it quite a bit. But I don’t want you to think you have to buy an air fryer to make this sweet potato black bean bowl. If you don’t have an air fryer, you can roast the sweet potatoes or even steam them. I like the crunchy texture that the air fryer creates, but sweet potatoes taste good no matter how you cook them.

Other recipes you might like

• If you like sweet potatoes, you might like my sweet potato biscuits or sweet potato walnut crunch.
• If you like grain bowls, you might like my pinto bean brown rice bowl.

This recipe was inspired by one from a fellow food blogger at A Meal in Mind. Her roasted butternut squash hash bowl got me thinking about what would make a good fall bowl recipe. Here’s where that thinking took me – a bowl full of nutritious, filling ingredients like the ones in this recipe. I hope you’ll check it out for yourself.

Products used in this recipe

I used my Emeril Lagasse Power AirFryer 360 to cook the sweet potatoes.