By Dev, CN Manager & Food Styling Enthusiast
Looking for a stand-out dish for a small gathering? Or even just something hearty that isn’t super time intensive for weekly meal prepping? If you’ve got an hour, look no further! This one’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser for vegetarians and anyone gluten free. It can also easily be made vegan by substituting a non-dairy cheese.
Ingredients from our shelves:
Cadia Tri-color Quinoa (2 cups, cooked)
Cadia Black Beans (1 can, drained)
Cocojune Organic Coconut Yogurt (½ cup)
Organic Valley Pepperjack cheese (grated)
Mountain Rose Herbs Taco Seasoning Blend (*paprika, cumin, garlic, cayenne, sea salt, and oregano)
Fresh ingredients:
Sweet potatoes (this recipe makes 8-12, depending on potato size and desired level of stuffing)
1 Bell pepper (~1 cup, diced)
1 Red Onion (~1 cup, diced)
Avocado (1 fruit, sliced)
Lime juice
Rinse whole sweet potatoes and pierce them a few times each with a knife. Place them on a foil-lined baking sheet in the oven and let them bake for 45 minutes at 425 F, or until soft enough to easily re-pierce with a fork. Fortunately, this leaves quite a lot of time in the middle for the rest of prep!
Rinse the quinoa thoroughly before preparing, for around 3-4 minutes under cool water. Bring 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of lightly salted water to a boil together, and simmer afterwards for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. This should produce roughly 2 cups of cooked quinoa. (If you’d like even more flavorful quinoa, it can be cooked in your choice of broth.)
Dice one cup of bell peppers and one cup of red onions. Toss both in an oiled skillet with a pinch of our flavorful taco seasoning, sprinkle of crushed rainbow peppercorns, and a dash of lime juice. This is all imprecise and to taste, so use as little or as much as you’d like for desired flavor boldness.
Add the drained can of Cadia’s black beans to your skillet in addition to the 2 cups of cooked quinoa. Mix together and sautee thoroughly on the stovetop until browned, roughly 10 minutes or so over medium heat.
Once the potatoes are fully baked, remove them from the oven and split them open slightly with a knife. Spoon in and mix the quinoa, onions, peppers, black beans, and spices with the meat of the sweet potato. Add freshly grated pepperjack cheese until melted, and drizzle spicy coconut yogurt sauce on top of the potato.
To make the coconut yogurt sauce, simply mix around 1/2 cup of Cocojune's coconut yogurt with lime juice and taco seasoning, also to taste.
For an extra crunch of protein, you can throw on a small handful of Louisville Jerky’s vegan bacon bits. I also garnished my potatoes with fresh sliced avocado and even more lime juice for a final tart kick. Deliciousness awaits!