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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 it with fried tortilla wedges for scooping.
Earlier this week I promised another way to use the chipotle crema that I drizzled on fishless tacos. Here it is – sweet potato black bean hash.
Usually hash is a breakfast dish. But this version is hearty enough for lunch or dinner.
Sweet potato black bean hash
The black beans are sautéed with kale, onions, garlic, and peppers, seasoned with Mexican spices, and served over roasted sweet potatoes. It’s then topped with avocado, cilantro, and chipotle crema.
The smoky crema works beautifully with the sweet potato. Sweet potatoes and chipotle peppers were made for each other. The dish has a wonderful mixture of flavors and textures that makes each bite a surprise.
Hash usually involves frying potatoes with peppers and onions. However, unless I’m making hash browns, I always prefer to bake potatoes over frying them.
Frying potatoes requires more babysitting than I enjoy. It’s a hassle making sure that the oil is hot enough that they brown, low enough that they cook inside, crisp but not burnt, fried on the outside but not overly oily on the 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. It’s less hassle, and I can easily focus on the other parts of the meal.
Even without the fried 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.
Fried tortilla wedges
Perhaps the best part of this sweet potato black bean hash is the scooping device – fried tortilla wedges.
When I’m making a meal, I like to think about the “star” ingredient. It’s the one that makes you want to eat everything else on the plate, because you need to go back for another bite of the “highlight” element. It’s often the ingredient that’s higher in fat and ticks those pleasure sensors.
On tacos, it’s guacamole.
On kale salads, it’s coconut bacon.
On Israeli couscous salad, it’s the olives or marinated artichoke hearts.
The rest of the ingredients in the dish are improved, because of the one aspect that raises the fun quotient.
In this sweet potato & black bean hash, the star ingredient is, surprisingly, the fried tortilla wedges. The hash is hearty 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 fried tortilla wedges before for my puffy nachos recipe, where they’re covered in vegan queso and a slew of toppings.)
Cutting store-bought tortillas in 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.
Sweet Potato Black Bean Hash with Chipotle Crema
Ingredients
For the hash
- 1 sweet potato about 10 ounces, cut in 1-inch pieces
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil divided
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 cup chopped red or yellow bell pepper
- 1 small to medium-sized tomato chopped
- 2 leaves kale about 2 cups, chopped with the ribs removed
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 1 1/2 cups black beans drained and rinsed
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ancho chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Pinch salt
- Organic canola oil or other high heat oil, for frying
- 3-4 wheat tortillas one tortilla for each person, cut into quarters
- 1 avocado sliced & pit removed
- Cilantro for garnish
For the chipotle crema
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon raw cashews
- 3/4 cup water plus extra for soaking, if not using a high-speed blender
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce* from 7 oz. can
- 1 teaspoon adobo sauce from can
- 1 teaspoon agave syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
To make the hash
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Toss sweet potato chunks with 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and spread evenly across a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Roast for 25 minutes, stopping once halfway through to flip. Remove from oven and set aside.
- While the sweet potato bakes, bring a skillet to a medium heat. Add the remaining one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil to the skillet. Saute the onion, garlic, and bell pepper for about 7 minutes, until the onions are fragrant and translucent.
- Add tomatoes, kale, and water to the skillet. Saute for another 3 minutes until the kale softens.
- Add drained black beans, cumin, ancho chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt to the skillet. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes until the beans have warmed through. If the beans start to stick, lower the temperature, and add a splash of water to loosen the spices from the pan.
- Heat a separate non-stick skillet with a thin layer of organic canola oil or other high heat oil. Bring to a medium high heat. Put a corner of a tortilla in the oil. If the oil immediately bubbles around it, the oil is hot enough. Fry the triangles a few at a time, being careful not to overfill. Fry until nutty brown and toasted on one side, then flip and fry the other side. (It will take a couple minutes on each side.) Once both sides are browned, remove from the skillet to a towel-lined plate. Continue frying until all of the wedges are done. Add more oil to the skillet between batches, if needed.
- Serve the hash in individual bowls with a layer of sweet potatoes, a few scoops of the black bean mixture, avocado slices, cilantro garnish (if using), and a drizzling of chipotle crema. Put one tortilla wedge in each bowl and the remaining wedges on the side.
To make the chipotle crema
- If you don't have a high speed blender, soak the cashews in water for several hours, and then drain. If you have a high speed blender, you can skip this step.
- Put the cashews, 3/4 cup water, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, agave syrup, and lemon juice in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Refrigerate the sauce in a covered container until ready to serve. The crema will thicken as it cools. It will be best at 24 hours. (If you are serving the crema right away and don't have time, try reducing the amount of water by a tablespoon.)
Notes
Nutrition
P.S. You can also switch up the recipe by varying the beans and potatoes. In addition to making this version, I’ve also made the same meal with pinto beans and russet potatoes (shown below). Keep the directions the same, and just swap out those two ingredients!
cookeasyvegan says
Sweet potatoes and black beans seem naturally made for each other, but you’ve taken the combination to the next level with the other recipe flavors. And the fried tortilla wedges! I think fried tortilla wedges might be addictive.
Cadry says
Thanks, Andrea! Sweet potatoes and black beans are the Bert & Ernie of the food world. They make an excellent pair. You might be right about the addictive quality of the wedges. I was going to say that two people could share one tortilla between them, but then after easily making my way through all four quarters, I decided it’s just not possible to scrimp. 🙂
Susan says
Yum, this sounds really good!
Though I did try frying tortillas once to make tortilla chips and they ended up both burnt and soggy… I don’t think frying is my forte. 😉 Perhaps practice will make perfect!
Cadry says
Ha, ha! Oh, my gosh! Burnt and yet soggy? That’s quite an accomplishment. 😉 I use just enough oil to cover the pan and then get it sizzling. It seems pretty foolproof to me. Maybe you should try it again now that you’ve gotten the soggy ones out of the way. 🙂
Mandy says
This looks incredible!!! I REALLY need to make that creama…I have the missing ingredients written down, so I’m making this happen next week. Love the sweet potato-black bean combo! Such a beautiful dish!
Cadry says
Thanks, Mandy! I really hope you’ll love it as much as I do. 🙂
Sophia @veggiesdontbite says
I love big bowls of goodness! YUM! And you know how I feel about sauces, looks amazing!!
Cadry says
Yes, you are the sauce master! They really take a dish up a notch. Thanks for the kind words!
krystal says
This looks super tasty! I even like the idea (and this is taking the easy/lazy quotient up) of frying the tortilla as one piece and breaking it apart as you eat it. Would that work with the texture the tortilla gets? FUN QUOTIENT MAXIMIZED! 🙂
Cadry says
Ha!! It’s all about maximizing the fun quotient! It seems to get the most crisp around the edges, and so I like it in quarters. More edges, more crispiness. However, I made it a couple of times just frying the tortillas in two halves, and that worked. Do you have kitchen scissors? With those it takes just seconds to cut everything up.
Bianca says
Ooh, I like this whole highlight ingredient stuff! You’re so right! I don’t think I’ve really ever thought about it like that. This recipe sounds amazing, especially with those fried tortillas!
Cadry says
Thanks, Bianca! Knowing how our palates overlap, I think this one would be right up your alley! 🙂
Barb@ThatWasVegan? says
Black beans and sweet potatoes are easily my favorite combo… but those fried tortilla wedges! I really need to try those!
Cadry says
Black beans and sweet potatoes were kind of made for each other, don’t you think?
Gena says
A perfect savory breakfast!