Sweet potato black bean hash makes for a hearty vegan brunch, lunch, or dinner. It’s a tantalizing mix of sweet, spicy, crisp, and soft ingredients. Serve with fried tortilla wedges for scooping.

When you think of potato hash, breakfast usually comes to mind.

And while a skillet of loaded potatoes can easily fit in the brunch domain, today’s sweet potato black bean hash is truly suitable for any time of the day. Lunch or dinner included.

A meal this hearty can’t be contained by breakfast alone.

This hash includes satiating black beans and roasted sweet potato. Plus, kale that’s been sautéed with onions, garlic, and peppers.

Finally, it’s served with avocado, a drizzle of chipotle crema, and crisp tortilla wedges for scooping.

Smoky crema works beautifully with sweet potato. Sweet potatoes and chipotle peppers were made for each other.

(It’s the same crema that I use on my vegan fish tacos!)

This dish has a wonderful mixture of flavors and textures that makes each bite a surprise.

Make things easy by roasting sweet potatoes

Hash usually involves frying potatoes with peppers and onions. However, unless I’m making hash browns, I prefer to bake or air fry potatoes over frying them.

Frying potatoes requires more babysitting than I enjoy. Because potatoes are dense, it’s a hassle making sure that the oil is hot enough that they brown, but low enough that they cook inside.

With baking, I can lightly oil the potatoes, lay them across a parchment paper covered baking sheet, and not think about them until they’re done, except to toss them once or twice.

By the way, I call for just one sweet potato in this dish, because there are so many other filling elements. However, if your crew likes a lot of sweet potatoes, I recommend adding a second one as well. Even if you don’t finish them, sweet potatoes make great leftovers!

Also, if you’d prefer to use Russet potatoes instead of sweet or pinto beans instead of black, that works too! Prepare them the same way.

Fried tortilla wedges

Even without the fried sweet potatoes, there’s still some frying involved in this recipe to make the dish feel a little decadent. However, this part only takes minutes to prepare.

Perhaps the best part of this sweet potato black bean hash is the scooping device – fried tortilla wedges.

The hash is satiating and flavorful with sweetness from the potatoes. And it all gets scooped on to the crisp, fried tortilla wedges a bite at a time. It adds a satisfying crunch underneath.

(I’ve made these tortilla wedges before for my fried vegan nachos recipe, where they’re covered in vegan queso and a slew of toppings.)

Cutting store-bought tortillas into quarters and then frying them in a light layer of oil makes them puff a little and get wonderfully crisp. You could certainly make the hash without them. But the fun quotient would go down by at least 23%.

I recommend frying one tortilla (four quarters) for each person.

For a gluten-free option, either leave off the flour tortilla wedges, use corn tortillas, or simply serve with readymade tortilla chips.

How to make this recipe

Start by making the chipotle crema with cashews

If you don’t have a high speed blender, you’ll need to soak the cashews in water for several hours to soften them. Then drain and continue with the recipe as written.

(Don’t have time to wait? Another option is to grind dry raw cashews into a flour using a clean coffee grinder. Then add them to your standard blender with the remaining ingredients.)

If you have a high speed blender, no soaking or coffee grinder grinding is necessary.

Add the cashews to the blender with water, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, agave syrup, and lemon juice.

(If you prefer things less spicy, remove the seeds in the peppers before using, or use one fewer pepper.)

Refrigerate the crema in a covered container until ready to serve. It will thicken as it chills.

Now it’s time to make the sweet potato hash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss sweet potato chunks with oil, and spread them evenly across the baking sheet.

Roast for 25 minutes, stopping once half-way through to flip.

While the sweet potato is cooking, bring a skillet to a medium heat with oil.

Sauté onion, garlic, and bell pepper, until the onions are translucent and fragrant.

Then add tomatoes, kale, and water to the skillet. Sauté for a few more minutes, until the kale softens.

Add drained black beans and spices to the skillet. Cook for about five minutes, until the beans have warmed through.

Make the crisp tortilla wedges

Pour a thin layer of organic canola oil into a separate non-stick skillet. Bring to a medium high heat.

If bubbles immediately form around a tortilla when it goes into the pan, you know the oil is hot enough.

Fry tortillas that have been cut into triangles in the oil a few at a time. Once they’re nutty brown on one side, flip them and fry the other side. (It will take a couple minutes on each side.)

Once both sides are brown, move the tortilla wedges to a towel-lined plate. Continue frying the remaining tortilla triangles.

Serve the hash in individual bowls or mini skillets with a layer of sweet potatoes, black bean mixture, avocado slices, cilantro for garnish, and a drizzle of chipotle crema. Serve with fried tortilla wedges for scooping.

(Looking for more skillet ideas? Check out these cast iron breakfast skillets, cooked on the grill.)

Originally posted March 2016. Content and photos updated November 2019.

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