A healthy sweet potato black bean rice bowl recipe that’s so warm, cozy, and flavorful you’ll think you’re eating comfort food!
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We’re super excited for fall, in case you haven’t noticed yet! Shorter days and cooler nights ahead have us constantly daydreaming about sweet potato, pumpkin, football snacks, and cozy bowls of soup and chili. But since we’re not quite into that time of year where we throw nutrition out the window and prepare for hibernation (i.e. winter), we cooked up the perfect meal to help bridge the seasons: a seemingly decadent yet nutritious Sweet Potato Black Bean Rice Bowl.
This sweet potato bowl recipe is the epitome of healthy food that tastes good and is easy to make. It’s so flavorful, cozy, and warm that it almost feels like comfort food – but it’s loaded with nutrients and will leave you feeling completely satisfied but not bloated. The perfect fall recipe to indulge in without ruining your summer health kick! Plus, you can make this low-calorie recipe in less than 45 minutes without much hands-on time. What’s not to love about that?
Sweet Potato Black Bean Rice Bowl Ingredients
There are a ton of flavorful and nutritious ingredients in our healthy sweet potato rice bowl recipe:
- Brown rice
- Sweet potato
- Pasilla (poblano) pepper
- Red onion
- Black beans
- Lime juice
- Cilantro
- Avocado
- Goat cheese
- Seasonings: chipotle powder, paprika, ground red cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin, and salt
Sweet potatoes, black beans, brown rice, and other heart-healthy ingredients make this the best power bowl recipe! Loaded with fiber, healthy fats, protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, each ingredient rounds out the nutrients in this recipe while creating a complex and delicious flavor profile. This recipe has quickly become one of our favorite weeknight dinners.
How To Make A Vegetarian Sweet Potato Bowl
The best part about healthy grain bowls is how easy they are to throw together! Here’s how to make our vegetarian black bean and sweet potato rice bowl:
- Steam brown rice.
- Cook the sweet potatoes on the stove while the rice is steaming, until they’re slightly caramelized and tender.
- Add the veggies, seasonings, and black beans to the sweet potato.
- Season the cooked rice with lime juice and chopped cilantro.
- Plate a bed of rice with sweet potato, black beans, and veggies on top. Finish with fresh avocado slices and crumbled goat cheese.
Only 5 steps and about 30 minutes to cook this easy vegetarian sweet potato dinner! You can even do prep and cleanup as you cook, since the sweet potatoes will take about 15 minutes before you need to add the rest of the ingredients.
Get the sweet potatoes on the stove first, then slice your peppers and onions, prepare your seasonings, and drain and rinse the beans. If you have time to spare, you can even wash a few dishes! That’s what makes this black bean sweet potato recipe the perfect easy, healthy weeknight meal.
Note that you’ll want to cook the sweet potatoes until they are just beginning to feel tender, then add the veggies, seasonings, and black beans. This keeps the veggies and beans from overcooking since they only need a few minutes on the stove. But it also ensures the sweet potatoes aren’t overcooked by the time everything else is heated through. Just-tender sweet potatoes will end up perfectly softened after a few more minutes of cooking alongside the remaining ingredients.
Healthy Sweet Potato Rice Bowl Meal Prep: Storing & Reheating
Another great thing about healthy rice bowls is that they’re perfect for easy meal prep. Cook up a big batch of brown rice, sweet potatoes, black beans, and veggies at the beginning of the week and store portioned meals in microwave-safe containers in the fridge. Then simply reheat for about 2 minutes in the microwave (stirring halfway through) before topping with goat cheese and avocado slices.
Prepared sweet potato black bean rice bowls will stay good for about 4 days in the fridge, so you’ll have delicious, healthy lunches ready on demand all week long!
This sweet potato black bean rice bowl tastes super fresh, yet warms you up with a little bit of spice and gives you that hearty, comforting feeling you crave from a cozy fall recipe. The creamy avocado and goat cheese on top feel just indulgent enough that you won’t even realize you’re eating something so healthy. It’s truly something magical!
Try the recipe below and let us know what you think in the comments 🙂 And if you love it, don’t forget to rate and share!
Nutrition References
- Dr. Axe: Poblano Pepper Benefits
- Health.com: Cilantro Health Benefits and Nutrition
- Healthline: Sweet Potatoes 101, Is Brown Rice Good For You?, 9 Impressive Health Benefits of Onions, 10 Delicious Herbs and Spices With Powerful Health Benefits, Are Black Beans Healthy?, Limes, 7 Benefits of Eating Avocados, Goat Cheese
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Sweet Potato Black Bean Rice Bowl
Equipment
- Small saucepan or rice cooker
- Large sauté pan with lid
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup brown rice dry
- 2 sweet potatoes peeled and diced into 1/4-inch cubes
- 4 tsp olive oil
- 1 med poblano (pasilla) pepper thinly sliced into 1.5-inch long strips
- ½ small red onion thinly sliced
- ½ tsp chipotle powder
- ½ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp ground red cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp cumin
- 15 oz canned black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 lime juiced
- 4 pinches sea salt
- ½ bunch cilantro chopped
- 1 medium avocado sliced
- 2 oz goat cheese crumbled
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Then stir in the brown rice, cover and turn heat to low. Steam until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid, about 25 minutes. Set aside.
- While the rice cooks, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add cubed sweet potatoes and season with about 3 pinches of salt. Cook until potatoes are lightly caramelized, stirring infrequently, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Cover the sweet potatoes and lower heat to medium. Cook until just tender, about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice if needed to prevent them from sticking to the pan.
- Remove the lid and lower heat to medium-low. Add the sliced pasilla pepper and onion, then season with chipotle powder, paprika, cayenne, chili powder, and cumin. Add about 1 tsp of olive oil and stir to combine. Cook until peppers and onions are softened, about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Next, stir in the black beans. Cook for just 2 to 3 more minutes until the beans are warmed through, then remove from heat. Season with juice from half a lime and a pinch of salt, stirring to combine.
- Season brown rice with juice from half a lime and chopped cilantro, stirring to combine.
- Serve a scoop of rice topped with the sweet potato, black bean, and veggies. Top with slices of fresh avocado and crumbled goat cheese and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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This recipe is delish! Perfect for this time of year as the weather gets cooler. I’ll make this one again and again!
Yay, so glad you enjoyed it! It really is the perfect fall dish. Definitely a go-to for the season!