Mexican-style baked sweet potatoes

Mexican-style baked sweet potatoes recipe

If you’ve been searching for family-friendly recipes packed with healthy veggies, look no further. This colourful dish featuring oven-baked sweet potatoes is perfect for Meat-Free Monday, a quick midweek meal or as a side dish for weekend barbecues. You can either assemble them before serving or put all the elements onto separate platters and bowls, so everyone around the table can make their potato up just the way they like it.

How to make Mexican-style sweet potatoes

When you’re choosing sweet potatoes, look for ones that are a similar size so they cook evenly. You don’t even need to peel them – in fact, the skins caramelise and go crispy when you bake them. Just be sure to give the sweet potatoes a good scrub and to prick the skin all over with a fork before you put them in the oven.

Depending on how big they are, the potatoes should take about 40 minutes to cook. That’s plenty of time to chargrill some corn and make up the black bean topping. One of the best aspects of this dish is that many of the components can be bought ready-made, so it becomes a matter of putting it all together once the baked sweet potato is done.

Get creative with this baked sweet potato recipe

In this recipe, we’ve made a topping of fresh charred corn, black beans and salsa, but you can easily use other fresh ingredients you have in the fridge. Add some halved cherry tomatoes when you’re cooking the beans and salsa, or blister some red or green capsicums and slice for additional toppings. Try some sauteed mushrooms, sprinkle over some chopped spring onions, or put a lime cheek on everyone’s plate – squeezing a little juice over the beans will add to the flavours of Mexico. Kids might like to add some grated cheese or a dollop of sour cream to the top of their baked sweet potato.

Instead of a premade avocado dip, mash ripe avocado with some fresh lime juice and season it with salt and cracked black pepper for a basic guacamole. For something even more exciting, try spiced guacamole or smoky guacamole.

Now get cooking

Looking for an option that’s a little more French than Mexican? Stuffed jacket potatoes with gruyere and mushrooms fit the bill. If the family loves the taste of sweet potato, try a Southern-style sweet potato salad for summer meals, or chicken and caramelised onion stuffed sweet potato, which can be dished up in just half an hour.