Cumin-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Black Beans
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Savory roasted sweet potato cubes with black beans and creamy avocado sauce. Serve this amazingly flavorful dish warm salad at room temperature.
Here’s a totally not-boring recipe for you, starring roasted sweet potatoes — our favorite tuber!
I’ve been happily eating this tasty little dish on repeat for the past few weeks, both as a side dish and a vegetarian main dish. It features chunks of diced sweet potatoes and black beans seasoned with bold flavors that are roasted until tender.
The spiced-up beauties are tossed into a salad studded with black beans, jalapeño and red onion.
And, the thick and creamy avocado crema spooned alongside the vegetable salad is the BEST little sauce/dressing/dip you’ll want to keep with you at all times.
Grab a spoon, because you’ll want to devour every drop!
This dish would make a perfect lunch or dinner salad. You can add a piece of meat/fish protein (if you’re not vegetarian) and make it more of a hefty meal.
I’ve even scooped spoonfuls of the potatoes onto corn tortillas for a quick on-the-go taco snack.
Note: If you want to make this sweet potato salad vegan, just leave out the feta cheese in the crema sauce.
Prepping sweet potatoes: Peel or no-peel?
The short and quick answer that sweet potatoes don’t need to be peeled. Keeping the peel on is mostly an aesthetic choice. Plus, the roasted skin adds a nice bit of texture.
How to prepare sweet potatoes for roasting
- First, give the sweet potatoes a good scrub under running water.
- Grab a vegetable peeler and remove any bits that look dirty or damaged, here and there. Feel free to skip this step if you don’t mind those bits!
- I also trim off the pointy ends because they tend to burn by the time the sweet potatoes are finished roasting.
The sweet potatoes end up looking half-undressed, but you get a little of everything in each bite that way.
How to roast sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are perfect candidates for roasting. A hot oven helps to caramelize the natural sugars in sweet potatoes, and those slightly bitter flavors temper their sweetness. Yum!
Fortunately, roasting sweet potatoes is an easy and straightforward task.
- Make sure the oven racks are set in the center of your oven for the best heat distribution.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, which is on the “hot” range of oven temperatures (350-375 degrees is considered moderate, while 400 degrees is moderately hot).
- Choose a large, shallow baking sheet with a rim — if you don’t already own at least two of these pans, what are you waiting for?!
- Toss the sweet potato chunks with olive oil, salt and the spices.
- Slide the pan into the hot oven and set a timer for 25 minutes.
- When the potatoes look brown on the edges and feel tender in the center, they’re done.
- Add the onion and chopped jalapeño toward the end of roasting so that they don’t burn.
More flavor-packed sweet potato and winter squash recipes:
- Chili Lime Sweet Potato Gratin
- Roasted Chipotle Sweet Potato Tacos
- Harissa Butternut Squash Salad
- Roasted Root Vegetables with Chimichurri
Cumin-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Black Beans
Equipment
Ingredients
Avocado Crema:
- 1 small avocado or 1/2 medium avocado, peeled and pitted
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar
- ⅓ cup (50 g) feta cheese
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ jalapeño
Sweet potatoes
- 2 pounds (900 g) sweet potatoes (about 4 medium)
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil, or avocado oil
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ red onion, sliced
- ½ fresh jalapeño, sliced
- 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
Avocado Crema
- Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until very smooth and creamy. Drizzle in 1 or 2 tablespoons of cold water, if needed, to help the process along. Refrigerate up to 2 days.
Roast the sweet potatoes
- Preheat the oven to 425 (220) degrees.
- Peel the sweet potatoes if you like. I usually leave most of the peel on, just peeling off any dark or dirty spots. Slice into 1" pieces.
- Toss the sweet potatoes on a large rimmed baking sheet with the oil, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and salt. Roast 25 minutes, or until tender and golden.
- Add the onion and jalapeño to the pan and stir everything around with a spatula. Roast 5 more minutes. Remove from the oven, add the black beans and cool on the baking sheet.
To serve
- Serve the potatoes with a generous dollop of the Avocado Crema on each plate, and sprinkle with cilantro leaves.
Karen’s Notes and Tips
- To make this recipe vegan, simply omit the feta cheese.
- The sweet potatoes can be roasted 3 days ahead. Warm them up for 10-12 minutes in a 350 degree oven and proceed with the recipe to serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.