Spicy Sweet Potato Burrito Bowl

Taco Tuesday recipe again!  I'll be honest, I could eat Mexican food all the time, so getting into this Taco Tuesday trend has been so easy.  I'm also a little late to the game with the cauliflower rice trend, but after studying nutrition and learning more about refined carbs, I'm 100% down to swap out white rice for cauliflower rice.  Don't get me wrong, I love white rice and I'm not a big fan of brown rice, but I find that by making little swaps like this, it's easy to eat delicious, healthy food.  I also made this bowl meatless because I found out that I was eating more protein per day than I needed.  I was always under the impression that I needed to eat meat with every meal in order to get the protein my body needed, but it turns out that's just plain wrong.  By swapping meat for sweet potatoes in this recipe, I was able to create a bowl that was filling, delicious, and healthy.

If you haven't been able to tell by the recipes I've posted before, I'm not a fan of boring food.  I (clearly) love food and can't settle for bland or basic food.  Whenever I make a salad or a bowl, I have trouble with adding too much, so as you can see this bowl is bursting with a variety of ingredients, but they each bring something different to the table.  I only put a small amount of romaine lettuce in my bowl because I didn't want it to turn into a salad, but wanted to add some crunch and greens.  If you're not into that, you can leave out the lettuce and still have a delicious bowl.  I also added some pepitas to this bowl which added a great salty crunch. 

 

The first time I made the bowl, I made it with pickled jalapenos, but the ones I had were SO spicy that I left them out of later bowls. One of the things I love about bowl recipes like this is that they're so easy to change around.  Don't like an ingredient?  Leave it out!  Love something else?  Add it in!  You really can't go wrong with a few basic swaps.  Oh, and if you're really dying to add some carbs or meat, that's okay too.  Ryan added chicken to one of his bowls and steak to another and both times they turned out great!  So here's the recipe for what I made, but feel free to tweak it and make it your own.

Total Time: 35-45 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes

1 can black beans

2 cups cauliflower rice

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1 cup salsa

1 cup romaine lettuce, chopped

1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbs avocado oil

Salt & Pepper

Optional toppings: pickled jalapenos, pepitas

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 435° F. Microwave the sweet potatoes for 5 minutes, flipping half way through.
2. Chop the sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes and toss with 1 tbs avocado oil, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt & pepper.
3. Toss the sweet potatoes onto a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, mixing half way through.
4. While the sweet potatoes are baking, cook the cauliflower rice.  Add 1 tbs avocado oil to a large pan over medium heat and then add the cauliflower rice.  Cook for 5-7 minutes until softened.  Salt & pepper to taste.
5. Once the sweet potatoes and cauliflower rice are cooked through, assemble your bowls.