Sweet Potato Bowl

Veggie bowls, sweet potato bowls, quinoa bowls, etc etc etc.. have been and will continue to be all the rage, and for good reason. You can literally put any ingredients you want into a bowl and it almost always works.

Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods to cook and to eat. If you aren’t eating sweet potatoes, please grow up and join us at the big kids table.

You can prepare them with an endless amount of possibilities, sweet and/or savory. I almost always use coconut oil on my sweet potatoes to really bring out their sweetness.

Fried sweet potato fries with marshmallow cream? Forget about it. I’m getting off track, but you know who to come to for sweet potato recipes..

For this bowl, I cubed my sweet potatoes into about 1 1/2″ pieces. I only used one sweet potato for this recipe, but it was gigantic. I should also say I almost never measure anything. Ever. Unless I’m baking.

Turn your oven on to 400.

After I’ve cubed the sweet potato, on a large sheet pan, I like to throw them in the oven for a couple of minutes to melt the coconut oil before I add the seasonings. Coconut oil melts super quick and I just find this is the easiest way to coat them evenly.

So, you’ll put your sweet potatoes and a spoonful or 2 of coconut oil on your pan and throw it in the oven for 2-3 minutes tops. Pull them out and toss your favorite seasonings on, toss with a spatula to coat evenly, arrange in a single layer on half of the baking sheet and put back in oven.

Sweet potatoes are a super dense root vegetable that take an astronomical amount of time to cook, even when they’re cut up. So put those in first while you get to work on the rest of your veggies.

For this bowl, I used one full red onion, one red bell pepper, 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks. For efficiency sake, you’re going to cook these veggies on the same pan as your sweet potatoes, so these veggies need to be chopped up much bigger in order to not out-cook the sweet potato.

After coarsely chopping the rest of your veggies, throw them all in a bowl together. Coating the veggies with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, seasoning with salt, pepper, and anything else you like, toss to coat evenly.

Working quickly, pull out your sweet potatoes (don’t toss them- let them be!), dump the rest of your veggies on the empty half of the sheet pan, and put back in the oven. You’ll continue cooking for another 15-25 minutes. It’s very important to keep an eye on your oven and flipping the veggies halfway through. Don’t go crazy flipping them, this is how you get mushy vegetables.

After about 40 minutes, your mixed veggies are starting to brown and look almost caramelized, your sweet potatoes are completely soft and may be starting to brown too, it’s time to pull them out.

One thing that is always in our pantry is minute ready rice. We always have brown rice and brown & wild rice combo. All you do is peel the lid off and pop it in the microwave for 60 seconds.

Get that in the microwave right after your veggies come out of the oven, and if you really want to give your brown rice flavor, I love putting fresh herbs in my rice. Fresh basil works best here, and is easiest to cut if you pull a big leaf off the stem, roll it like a gum wrapper, and cut it in slivers, or ribbons. You want to get your fresh herb into the rice while it’s steaming to almost blanche the aromas out of the herbs.

You can get cute and divide your ingredients into little sections, or you can be practical and put down a layer of basil rice, then sweet potatoes, and then mixed veggies. You’re going to want a little bit of it all of it in each bite. It’s so good guys. What’s your favorite roasted veggie? Let me know, and let me know what you think about this recipe!

Ingredients:

One large sweet potato, diced into 1 & 1/2″ pieces

One red onion, roughly chopped into quarters

One red bell pepper, roughly chopped into think pieces

2-3 celery stalks, roughly chopped

2-3 carrots, cut into half inch thick pieces

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Coconut oil

Olive oil

Herbs de Provence

Salt & Pepper

Trader Joe’s Umami seasoning (optional)

1 cup One Minute instant brown rice

Fresh basil

Pre-heat oven to 400.

Directions:

1. Bake your diced sweet potatoes with coconut oil, garlic powder, onion powder & herbs de provence for about 10 minutes.

2. Add your roughly chopped onion, bell pepper, carrot & celery to a bowl and mix with olive oil, salt & pepper, & umami seasoning. It gives an Earthy, mushroomy flavor. Shrooms flavor without the texture? Uh hell yes?

3. Add mixed veggies to your sheet pan and quickly add back to the oven.

4. After about 10 more minutes, grab your pan and flip your veggies quickly.

5. Start checking your veggies after 30-35 minutes to make sure they don’t get over cooked. All ovens tend to be a little different. Once they are starting to brown, they’re ready to be pulled out.

6. Put a cup of minute rich in the microwave and chop a fresh basil leaf into ribbons. Add into rich cup immediately after timer goes off so that the steam warms the basil. This is absolutely necessary for max flavortown. You’re welcome Guy Fieri.

7. After your basil as bathed in the steamy rice for a minute or two, toss it in a bowl. Add the sweet potatoes, and the mixed veggies. Top with avocado, some fancy arugula, or some shredded cheese if you give no shits.

And enjoy! You just made a delicious, healthy and satisfying bowl of roasted veggies and it really was pretty easy, huh? This recipe prepares enough for 2 bowls. Let me know what you think!