Black Bean Sweet Potato Tacos

Ingredients

• 1¼ lb / 567 g Sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1 tsp Chili powder
• 1 tsp Ground cumin
• 1 tsp Paprika
• ¾ tsp Kosher salt
• ¼ tsp Black pepper
• 1 small (about 70 g) Yellow onion, diced
• 2 Garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can (15 oz / 425 g) Black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 Tbsp Lime juice
• 8 Corn tortillas
• To taste Fresh cilantro, chopped, for serving (optional)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 425°F / 220°C. Line a sheet pan with parchment, or leave it bare if you prefer to wash the pan. The parchment is extra. It is not in the measured ingredients.
2. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into ½-inch cubes. Dice the onion. Mince the garlic. On the pan, toss the sweet potatoes and the onion with the olive oil, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt, and black pepper. Spread them in one layer. Use a mild chili powder, not cayenne, so the plate stays mild.
3. Roast 20 minutes. Stir the pan. Add the garlic and the drained beans. Roast 8–10 minutes more, until a fork slides into a sweet potato cube and the beans are hot. A hard center needs a few more minutes.
4. Take the pan out. Stir in the lime juice. Taste, and add a pinch more salt only if the beans taste flat. That pinch is extra. It is not part of the measured ¾ tsp.
5. Warm the corn tortillas in a dry skillet, about 20–30 seconds per side. Or wrap the stack in a clean damp towel and set it in the oven for the last few minutes of roasting. The corn tortillas are the wrap. Read the bag if the plate should skip wheat. Some corn tortillas share equipment with wheat.
6. Spoon the sweet potatoes and beans into the warm tortillas, 2 per plate. Chopped cilantro on top is optional. The filling keeps covered in the fridge for a few days. Reheat it and warm fresh tortillas when you eat the leftovers.

Nutrition

Kitchen estimate only, not lab-verified. Counted as 1 of 4 plates: a share of the roasted sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, beans, oil, spices, salt, pepper, and lime, plus two corn tortillas. Cilantro, parchment, and any extra salt at the end are not in the count. The bean weight is the drained can, not the 15 oz net weight with liquid. A larger tortilla moves the numbers.

Guest diet / allergy swaps

Short kitchen notes for guests. A fuller gluten-free or dairy-free ingredient list, when we have one, is in the panels below.

• Dairy-free

  The pan is sweet potato, olive oil, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, black beans, lime juice, and corn tortillas. There is no cheese, sour cream, milk, or butter. Cheese or sour cream at the table is extra, and that is the dairy. Read the tortilla bag. This is a kitchen note, not a dairy-free certification.

• Gluten-free style

  The tortillas are corn, not wheat. Use a bag that says gluten-free. Chili powder is the other package to read. A few blends add wheat flour. Sweet potato, beans, olive oil, cumin, paprika, lime, onion, and garlic do not call for wheat. This is a kitchen note, not a gluten-free certification.

• No beans

  This plate is built on black beans. Use 1 can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed, in their place. The tacos are no longer black bean tacos.