I’m SO excited to share these vegetarian sweet potato black bean tacos with you. They’re inspired by my friend Jessica’s new cookbook The Pretty Dish.
Let me just tell you that I’ve basically been obsessed with Jessica’s recipes for years. She’s an inspiration to many, dedicated to her craft and incredibly talented when it comes to creating epic, creative flavor combinations. She’s also a beauty product fanatic, which makes me love her even more.
Since I love tacos, but don’t make them at home nearly enough, I decided that Jessica’s Butternut Squash Black Bean tacos were going to happen on the blog. Unfortunately finding butternut squash this year can be a little difficult, so I opted for the always seasonal sweet potato. Where my sweet tayta lovers at?
Get ready for these sweet potato black bean tacos to blow ya mind. Meatless Monday MAGIC.
Ingredients in these sweet potato black bean tacos
These vegetarian tacos are simple to make and involve spiced, roasted sweet potatoes and a super addicting avocado lime crema. I added avocado because I love the creamy texture it gives the tacos and helps cool the jalapenos down a bit. Here’s everything you’ll need to make them:
- For the avocado lime crema: my absolutely delicious crema recipe is made with greek yogurt, avocado, chili powder, fresh lime juice & zest, a little chopped cilantro and salt.
- Sweet potato: we’re roasting up sweet potato with a little coconut oil (or olive oil), brown sugar, garlic, more chili powder, salt & pepper until they’re nice and tender. Feel free to add a little cayenne pepper if you like heat!
- Black beans: you’ll get plenty of plant-based protein from black beans!
- Tortillas: I like to use corn tortillas, but feel free to use any you’d like.
- For topping: here’s where you can get creative. I like to add jalapeño slices, cabbage for crunch, more chopped cilantro, and creamy avocado slices. Don’t forget the hot sauce!
Customize your tacos
These easy black bean sweet potato tacos are SO great for customizing with ingredients you have on hand! Here’s what I can recommend:
- Pick your veggies. Feel free to roast up or add literally any veggies you like (or try my Sheet Pan Roasted Veggie Tacos!) Roasted butternut squash makes the perfect swap for sweet potato in the winter.
- Add extra protein. The black beans add tons of plant-based protein to these tacos, but you can absolutely swap or add chickpeas, tofu (hello grilled tofu), ground turkey or shredded chicken, grilled shrimp, or even my Grilled Jalapeño Cilantro Chicken.
- Go grain free (or lower carb). You can easily use grain free tortillas, or serve the taco filling in a collard wrap or over cauliflower rice. Alternatively, add everything to your fav greens for a vegetarian taco salad!
- An easy vegan version: to keep the tacos vegan/dairy free simply omit the greek yogurt from the crema and add extra avocado.
More delicious sauce options
The avocado lime crema is a 10/10 on these tacos, but these homemade sauces are equally as delicious:
- Jalapeño Cashew Sauce takes slightly longer but is creamy, vegan and SO flavorful.
- Spicy Cilantro Yogurt Sauce for a wonderfully herby, tangy flavor.
- Jalapeño Green Tahini Sauce has a delicious kick of heat and herby flavor. Plus it happens to be nut free!
- Jalapeño Cilantro Yogurt Sauce is slightly tangy, fresh and bright. Feel free to use a plain, dairy free yogurt to keep the tacos vegan if you’d like.
Check out all of my sauce recipes here!
How to char tortillas
Your corn tortillas will be extra delicious with a little charring on them!
- Turn on your stovetop burner to the lowest setting.
- Place one tortilla on the burner and let it heat up for about 45 seconds – checking frequently to make sure it’s not burning.
- Once it has the desired char, carefully flip the tortilla with tongs and char on the other side.
- The tortilla might puff up a bit once you flip, which is okay!
- Cover your tortillas with a dishtowel as you finish them so that they stay warm.
Prep these vegetarian tacos ahead of time
You can easily start the prep for these black bean sweet potato tacos early by cubing your sweet potato and storing it in airtight containers in the fridge, plus making the crema the 1-2 days before! You could even mix together all of the spices and store them in a jar until you’re ready to use them.
More healthy taco recipes you’ll love
- Amazing Slow Cooker Turkey Tacos
- Blackened Salmon Tacos with Forbidden Rice & mango Guacamole
- Crazy Good Street Corn Chicken Tacos
- Chipotle Lime Salmon Tacos with Corn Avocado Peach Salsa & Cilantro Yogurt Sauce
- Gaby’s Grilled Fish Tacos with Pineapple-Mango Salsa
Get all of my taco recipes here!
I hope you love these sweet potato black bean tacos! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked them. Enjoy, xo!
Jalapeño Sweet Potato Black Bean Tacos with Avocado-Lime Crema
Beautiful sweet potato black bean tacos with perfectly spiced sweet potato, protein-packed beans, and an addicting avocado lime crema. These vegetarian tacos are filled with wonderful flavors and textures for a delicious meatless meal that even meat-eaters will love!
Ingredients
- For the Avocado Lime Crema:
- 1/4 cup 2% plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 avocado
- 1/4 cup water, to thin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder or chipotle chili powder
- Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- For the tacos:
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 cups cubed sweet potatoes (from 1 large or 2 smaller sweet potatoes)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 corn tortillas, warmed or at room temp
- For topping:
- 1/2 cup black beans
- Jalapeño slices
- Cabbage
- Fresh chopped cilantro
- Optional: Extra avocado slices
Instructions
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To make the tacos: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, brown sugar, minced garlic and chili powder.
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Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and pour mixture over the top. Season with salt and pepper and toss well to coat. Roast for 30-40 minutes, tossing a bit halfway through.
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While the tacos are cooking, prepare you avocado lime crema, by adding all crema ingredients to a blender or food processor and processing until smooth and creamy. Add additional water if necessary to thin out.
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Assemble the tacos by filling the tortillas with the sweet potatoes. Top with the cabbage, black beans, avocado, jalapenos and a drizzle of the avocado lime crema. Serves 2; make 2-3 tacos per person. Feel free to double the recipe for meal prep.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from The Pretty Dish by Jessica Merchant
To make vegan: Leave out the Greek yogurt in the crema and use extra avocado instead!
See the full post for tips, tricks & ways to customize these tacos!
36 comments
Yes yes yes to these! They sound amazing for a taco Tuesday!
Absolutely!!
So Delicious coconut yogurt would also be a good sub for vegans if you have it near you. Between this recipe and the new one on Minimalist Baker, I’m starting to think this is some new weird targeted tastebud ads… It’s like you knew what I was craving!
Yes! Haha ’tis the season for yummy tacos 🙂
Yay tacos! Thank you the recommendation for Jessica’s cookbook. Can’t wait to check it and her site out!
You bet! The recipes are gorgeous – hope you love them 🙂
Tacos! The flavors in these sounds perfect!
Yes! They’re seriously so good!
great taco idea, they have all of my veg favorites that I usually find in a salad, nice change in a taco, thank you!
These look so colorful and tasty Monique! Perfect for meatless Monday nights!
Yes absolutely! Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, you name it 😉
thank you so so so so much!
xoxoxoxo
I loved these tacos!!!! I made the sauce vegan, so without the yogurt. Just added some vinegar and more lime to it instead. I forgot to add the sliced avocado inside but it was delicious anyway! I could eat these everyday. So, so good. Thanks.
Perfect!! I pretty much ate these every day after I made them 😉 so glad you loved them too!
This is my favorite recipe I have tried so far and I make one of your recipes at least twice a week! I am cleaning up and I can’t stop dipping the sweet potatoes in the crema sauce- soooo good, everyone needs to try this!
Love this one! And yes that avocado-lime crema is the best.
These are awesome, I HIGHLY recommend adding pickled jalapeños, they took the tacos to the next level!
YUM pickled jalapeños sound delicious. Glad you enjoyed!
These were AMAZING. I hosted a taco party and wanted to have a vegan option so I made these! The only change I made since I was feeding a crowd was made the sweet potato recipe x5 and let cool on the pan. I mixed a can of rinsed black beans, 1/4 water and seasoned with chili powder and cumin in the crockpot and mixed in the sweet potatoes. I put on low until the beans were cooked/hot. Huge hit at the party… sadly, no leftovers. Making again this week and making the crema this time too!
Perfect! Love the idea of serving these at a party 🙂 glad everyone enjoyed!
I made these tacos last night and they are the perfect combo of spicy and sweet. The sweet potatoes could be their own separate side dish. Are there any recipes for the leftover red cabbage?
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed! Feel free to search “cabbage” in the search bar 🙂 tons of delicious recipes: https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/?s=cabbage&post_type=post
Loved these! Made a double batch for meal prep! Definitely took me a bit longer than 10 minutes to prep due to all the chopping (I used all the recommended garnishes too). Loved the sticky glaze on the potatoes, it paired well with the zesty and creamy crema. Mine didn’t get as smooth as yours – could still see some cilantro bits – but it’s probably because my food processor isn’t that strong. Awesome flavors and a great meatless option – 3 tacos definitely filled me up! Thanks Monique for an approachable and delicious meal!
So happy you loved this one! Once you chop & cook everything up the filling makes great leftovers, too 🙂
These were SO GOOD!! I sometimes don’t feel full after vegetarian meals but the combination of black beans, sweet potatoes plus the extra slices of avocados in the tacos made them very filling, I made two small tweaks: I looooove pickled jalapeños so I used those instead of fresh jalepeños, and they were perfect! I also like seasoned black beans better than plain, so I rinsed and patted them dry and roasted them together with the sweet potatoes. Everything was delicious! Thank you!
Such a great vegetarian dinner 🙂 also pickled jalapeños sound amazing!
Made this the other day and my husband absolutely flipped out over them. He said he’d love to have this for dinner eat least once a week. Seriously delicious!
Amazing! So happy to hear that 🙂
Just AMAZING. The flavour is everything, and the avocado lime crema is TO DIE FOR. I could eat it on its own with a spoon. I also really love the spice combo of the sweet potatoes. It all ties together perfectly! I swear Monique cannot create a bad recipe. Another fav of ours for meatless Monday! Thank you!!!
Delicious! I didn’t change a thing! A great meal for prepping ahead of time and eating throughout the week.
Awesome! SO happy you loved them 🙂
I asked my husband to rate this recipe, and he said 5 stars! The sweet potatoes were SO flavorful, and the sauce really pulls the tacos together. I tried to slice the jalapenos like your pictures show, but they were just too spicy with the seeds. So I deseeded them and chopped them, and it was perfect! Thank you for the recipe!
These were absolutely delicious! You definitely don’t miss the meat in these tacos. Wonderful combination of flavours and textures and very easy to make!
I’m SO glad you loved them, Alicia! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review 🥰
do you think I can sub butternut squash for the sweet potatoes??
Absolutely!