Sweet potato and black bean salad is quickly becoming one of my summer staples! And with the combo of flavours and textures, you’ll be wanting more.
I’m a huge fan on sweet potatoes. Most important for me is that they have a fantastic flavour and texture. Second to this is they’re full of the good stuff – potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin B6 which supports energy which is something I need when training. And feel free to leave the skins on as it gives added fibre and beta carotene and lots of other good stuff – just top and tail and give a good scrub to remove any dirt.
Black beans, otherwise known as turtle beans – I love these. This is a staple in many south American dishes. They’re much smaller than the usual red kidney bean. Feel free to use a couple of tins. I like to cook them after soaking the dried beans, just follow the instructions. And you can cook these in bulk and freeze the remainder to use when needed. Black beans are a source of iron, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper, and zinc.
600 g or so of sweet potato, chop into chunks
350 g of cooked black beans (or 2 tins with beans drained and washed)
1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
3 tbsp of olive oil
½ tsp of chilli powder
Juice of 2 limes
Small handful of coriander, chopped roughly
- Preheat oven to 180 C/350F/gas mark 4
- Put the chopped sweet potato and red onion on a tray with a splash of oil. Bake in oven for 20 mins or so until the sweet potato is cooked.
- In the meantime, put the black beans, garlic, chilli and coriander in a large bowl and mix.
- Once the sweet potato and onion is cooked, add in with other ingredients. Best to do when still warm.
- Add in the lime juice and a couple of tbsp of olive oil. Stir.
It’s ready to eat. You might like this by itself or as part of a wrap, or why not have it as a taco filling. And it tastes even better the next day so leftovers aren’t a problem.
Let me know how you get on.
Inspired by Naturally Ella!