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You won’t believe the flavor in these Mexican sweet potatoes, topped with black bean salsa and creamy cilantro sauce!
Meet our favorite meal: the baked sweet potato. Alex and I have been eating this meal since the very beginning of our marriage, when we decided we wanted to start cooking more vegetables. At the time, I had myself convinced that I didn’t like sweet potatoes, mainly due to bad connotations with marshmallow goo on holidays. But I gave them another chance with these Mexican sweet potatoes, and our sweet potato obsession was born.
These Mexican sweet potatoes are the perfect blend of sweet and savory. The spicy black bean salsa is the perfect complement to the light sweetness of the potato, and topped with creamy cilantro sauce, it’s a little bit of heaven. And 100% whole food plant based (WFPB), too!
Related: Easy Vegan Recipes for Beginners
How to make Mexican sweet potatoes
This recipe uses our Quick Baked Sweet Potato method, which makes them intensely flavorful. And we’ve used one of our favorite tricks to cut down the cooking time: cut the sweet potatoes in half before roasting! Rub a tiny amount of olive oil and a sprinkle of kosher salt onto the potatoes before popping into the oven. Depending on the size of the potato, it cuts down the roasting to about 25 to 35 minutes, instead of 45 minutes to 60 minutes.
Of course, you can top these Mexican sweet potatoes with any toppings you’d like! But the toppings we’ve chosen here all work together splendidly:
- Black bean salsa: chop up some tomatoes, add jalapeno, red onion, and cilantro, and you’ve got a delicious savory spicy salsa that’s fresh in contrast to the roasty potatoes.
- Creamy Cilantro Sauce for dolloping, which is 100% plant based (see more on the sauce below). Of course if you prefer, you could use good old sour cream and cheese for topping.
- Corn
- Hot sauce
- Cilantro leaves
Top with creamy cilantro sauce!
To top off these Mexican sweet potatoes is Creamy Cilantro Sauce! Using the cilantro sauce makes the entire dish vegan and plant-based, which is helpful for feeding a crowd of various diets. The sauce is made creamy using soaked cashews. The cashews are soaked for 1 hour before blending the sauce, so if you’re able to make it in advance it’s also helpful. As you’ll see in the recipe, you can add water to taste to make it as thick or as drizzle-able as you’d like. The flavor is super tangy and savory, and a perfect contrast for the earthy potatoes!
Alternate sauces
If you’d prefer a quicker sauce, try our Creamy Cilantro Dressing! It uses Greek yogurt and a little mayonnaise. Or, try some of our other Mexican-style sauces:
- Creamy Cilantro Dressing *favorite*
- Cilantro Lime Crema
- Vegan Nacho Cheese
- Cashew Cream
- Vegan Sour Cream
- Spicy Chipotle Sauce (tahini-based)
- Easy Mexican Crema
Make sure to eat the potato skins!
A quick word about the humble sweet potato: you can eat the whole thing! Most people throw out the skin of the sweet potato, but that’s actually one of the healthiest parts of the meal! Sweet potato skins are packed with fiber, beta carotene, and vitamins C and E, just to name a few of the many reasons you should eat the skin.
These Mexican sweet potatoes work for many occasions: as a healthy family dinner recipe, or as a party appetizer. They’d be especially great for game day! Let us know if you try them out in the comments below.
Looking for more easy weeknight dinners?
Outside of these Mexican sweet potatoes, here are some of our favorite easy weeknight dinners:
- Thai Baked Sweet Potatoes
- Slow Cooker Black Bean Chili
- Hearty Sweet Potato and Kale Soup
- Tomato Coconut Cauliflower Curry
- “Verde” Lentil Vegan Tacos
- Quick Coconut Lentil Curry
- Best Stir Fry Vegetables with Teriyaki
- Loaded Quinoa Tacos
- Easy Chickpea Salad Sandwich
- Quick Cuban Black Beans
- Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
- Best Healthy Dinner Recipes
- Best Ever Taco Pizza
- Related: 10 Romantic Dinner Recipes
This Mexican sweet potatoes recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.
Mexican Sweet Potatoes
You won’t believe the flavor in these Mexican sweet potatoes, topped with black bean pico de gallo and creamy cilantro sauce!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mexican Inspired
Ingredients
- 4 medium sweet potatoes
- Olive oil, for rubbing
- Kosher salt
- 1 recipe Black Bean Salsa
- ½ cup frozen corn kernels
- Creamy Cilantro Sauce or Creamy Cilantro Dressing, to serve (plus a few extra cilantro leaves)
- Mexican hot sauce (such as Cholula), to serve
- Other topping ideas: Sour cream, Mexican Crema, cheese, Vegan Nacho Cheese, Vegan Sour Cream, Cashew Cream, or Chipotle Sauce
Instructions
- Start soaking the cashews for the Creamy Cilantro Sauce (or make it in advance; you can also soak the cashews the night before for easy day-of prep). If you’re planning to make the Creamy Cilantro Dressing, skip this part.
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Wash the sweet potatoes and slice them in half. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and rub lightly with olive oil, just enough to coat. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake until tender and lightly browned on the edges, about 25 to 35 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes.
- Make the Black Bean Pico de Gallo.
- Defrost the frozen corn.
- Make the Creamy Cilantro Sauce (or Creamy Cilantro Dressing). Save out a few cilantro leaves and chop the cilantro for a garnish.
- To serve, top the roasted sweet potatoes with Black Bean Pico de Gallo, corn kernels, cilantro, and dollops of Creamy Cilantro Sauce.
This was absolutely mind blowingly delicious! thankyou :D
That creamy cilantro dressing atop of sweet potatoes has quickly become one of my all-time favorite food combo. This recipe is such a fresh take on “Taco Tuesday” in our household!! Thank you for sharing this delightful dish with the world!
This is scrumptious. I made it with the creamy cilantro sauce with the yogurt/Mayo, and just put the corn into the black bean salsa. Absolutely yummy!
I’ve just begun cooking vegan recipes, and I love this one! What a wonderful combination of flavors.
An explosion of flavors! Thank you so much for the inspiration!
You are welcome!
Just made this and was pleasantly surprised and amazed by how all the components worked so well together!!! I am not the biggest fan of sweet potatoes but I am experimenting (2nd day) with going vegan and this was AWESOME! Even my 17 year old son loved it and commented on how fresh and deliciously composed it was. Thank you!
So glad you loved it!