Last updated November 8th, 2024
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Shake up taco night with these vegetarian sweet potato taco bowls, packed with nutritious and flavorful ingredients the whole family will love.

We love using the combination of sweet potato and black beans in vegetarian recipes because they are so good at mimicking the texture and feel of a meat heavy dish, without the meat. Plus, between the sweet potatoes and black beans, you get many nutrients and a good amount of protein which is always important for a vegetarian meal.
But the most basic reason we love this combination is that it just tastes SO good. Sweet potato, black beans, and a little taco seasoning and you have yourself a good meal even without anything else. But of course we don’t just stop there! This delicious taco bowl adds in corn, three types of peppers, and onion to give a wonderful medley of Mexican flavors. Top it off with cilantro lime brown rice, avocado crema, and cotija cheese and you have yourself a taco bowl no one can resist.
What This Recipe Entails
This vegetarian taco bowl comes together in about 45 minutes for a fresh, healthy, and satisfying dinner.
- Prep time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 30 minutes
We use a lot of different produce in this taco bowl, and while we believe it all has its place, you can adjust what you use based on what you have on hand or your favorite taco bowl toppings and flavors.

Sweet Potato Taco Bowls Ingredients
There are a lot of ingredients that go into these taco bowls. But that’s why they’re so amazing! Packed with all sorts of great textures and flavors, you won’t even realize that this is a vegetarian recipe.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Sweet potatoes
- Black beans
- Whole kernel corn (frozen or canned)
- Anaheim peppers
- Jalapenos
- Red onion
- Red bell pepper
- Taco seasoning
- Lime
- Cilantro lime rice (we like using brown rice for this recipe)
- Avocado crema
- Cotija cheese (optional garnish)
- Fresh cilantro (optional garnish)
If you aren’t a fan of anything spicy in your meals, you can leave out the jalapenos and Anaheim peppers. You can either add more bell pepper to replace them or just simply forego them.
We use frozen corn for this recipe, but you can also use fresh or canned corn. We love having frozen corn in the freezer as an easy ingredient for many different recipes, like our black bean and corn salsa. If you’re using fresh corn, boil or roast it ahead of time, and then slice off the kernels with a sharp knife.
We love making as much as we can from scratch, which is why we’ve linked our taco seasoning, cilantro lime rice, and avocado cilantro lime crema in the ingredients above. We just love the added flavor of freshly made food, and we promise the little bit of extra work is worth it if you have the time! Of course, you are always free to use some minute rice, pre-packaged taco seasoning like El Paso, or your favorite avocado lime condiments to make this recipe easier.

How To Make Sweet Potato Taco Bowls
This recipe follows very similar directions for cooking the sweet potato mixture that we use in many of our other recipes, such as our sweet potato black bean rice bowls. So if you’ve made that before this will be a breeze, but if not no worries!
This recipe is easy to make and is a great way to cook sweet potatoes no matter what you’re using them for. Here’s how to make this delicious taco bowl:
- Start by heating oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the sweet potatoes and about 3 pinches of salt and cook until caramelized, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Once the sweet potatoes are caramelized, turn the heat to medium and cover. Cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the potatoes are just tender, stirring once or twice to ensure even cooking.
- When the sweet potatoes are tender, remove the lid, reduce the heat further to medium-low, and add the peppers, onion, and an extra splash of oil. Sprinkle with the taco seasoning and sauté until the peppers and onions are softened, about 5 minutes.
- Next, stir in the black beans and corn and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until warmed through.
- Finally, season with lime juice and serve over cilantro lime rice, topped with avocado crema, cotija cheese, and fresh cilantro.
Note: You can either serve the sweet potato mixture over a bed of cilantro lime rice topped with crema, cotija, and cilantro, or mix the rice and sweet potato together in a large bowl before serving. Mixing everything together is an easy way to serve this dinner to a large crowd, so everyone gets the right proportion of rice and taco bowl filling!
Preparing Additional Ingredients
If you are making the taco seasoning, cilantro lime rice, and avocado crema from scratch, here are a few notes to help make the timing work out best:
- Make the taco seasoning before doing anything else since you’ll need it to make the sweet potato mixture. It can easily be made ahead of time and stored in a spice jar, so it’s always on hand when you need it!
- Prep the avocado crema while you are preparing the ingredients for the sweet potatoes. It can then be stored in the fridge while you finish cooking, and it’ll be nice and cold to drizzle over your hot taco bowl for serving.
- Make the rice while you are cooking the sweet potatoes. If you start to boil water for the rice when you start cooking the potatoes, the timing generally works out quite well.

Serving Suggestions
These healthy taco bowls can absolutely make a dinner on their own. But we always love to have something on the side to make a more complete meal. Here are some of our favorite sides that can be enjoyed with homemade tortilla chips or added into your bowl:
Adding a fresh dip on the side is a great way to round out a meal and make dinner last longer. We always find ourselves moving through dinner too fast when there is only one thing to eat. By adding a side, we end up enjoying a longer dinner and savoring the hard work we did making everything.
Storing And Reheating Leftovers
Whether you mixed everything together or built your bowls ingredient by ingredient, you can store all your leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days. And thankfully reheating is as easy as popping leftovers in the microwave for a minute or two, then topping with fresh ingredients like the crema, cotija cheese, and fresh cilantro!
Give these sweet potato taco bowls a try the next time you’re looking for a healthy vegetarian dinner. Let us know what you think by commenting, rating, and sharing below!
Love this recipe? You may enjoy these vegetarian recipes, too:
- Pasta With Zucchini And Tomatoes
- Chipotle Lime Black Bean Burrito Bowls
- Sun Dried Tomato Basil Spaghetti Bake
- Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos
To browse more of our latest recipes and seasonal dishes, visit our homepage here.
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Sweet Potato Taco Bowls
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and diced into half inch cubes
- 15 ounce canned black beans drained and rinsed
- ½ cup frozen whole kernel corn defrosted
- 2 small anaheim peppers sliced thin into 2 inch long strips
- 2 small jalapenos diced
- ½ medium red onion diced
- 1 medium red bell pepper diced
- 1 tablespoon cooking olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Taco Seasoning
- ½ medium lime juiced
- 3 pinches sea salt
- 4 servings Cilantro Lime Rice* made with brown rice
- ½ cup Avocado Cilantro Lime Crema
- Cotija cheese for garnish
- Fresh cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Start by heating oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the sweet potatoes and about 3 pinches of salt and cook until caramelized, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Once the sweet potatoes are caramelized, turn the heat to medium and cover. Cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the potatoes are just tender, stirring once or twice to ensure even cooking.
- When the sweet potatoes are tender, remove the lid, reduce the heat further to medium-low, and add the peppers, onion, and an extra splash of oil. Sprinkle with the taco seasoning and sauté until the peppers and onions are softened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the black beans and corn and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until warmed through.
- Season with lime juice and serve the mixture over cilantro lime rice, topped with avocado crema, cotija cheese, and fresh cilantro.
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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