Mexican Black Bean Plate in under 30 mins!

I love eating black beans and sweet potato together, but some nights you want a fast and quick meal. Here's a take on my stuffed black bean sweet potato recipe that you can make in under 30 mins - perfect for busy weeknights or weekends!

Ingredients:

-sweet Potatoes (1 per person)

-olive oil

-black beans

-garlic

-red pepper

-red Onion

-corn

-tomatoes

-avocado

-lime

-green onion

-hot sauce

-chilli flakes

-paprika

-cumin

-salt & pepper

Step One:

Preheat oven to 350C. Oil a non-stick baking sheet (or use tinfoil or a reusable mat) on your tray. Slice up 1 sweet potato per 2 people, I find this to be a good ratio as there's a lot of toppings and you could even stretch it further if you served salad with this meal. I like to make fry shapes or big wedges that a thin and cook fast.

Lay the sweet potato flat and spice with sea salt, pepper and paprika. Now is a great time to also cook 1 cup of black beans in your instapot for around 20 minutes. This lets you not have to multitask too much and you won't have to worry about these beans till the very end.

Step Two:

In a medium - large pan with olive oil on low-medium heat, add chopped red onion, garlic and red pepper. Stir and let sauté until they start to brown up and golden.

Step Three:

Once sautéd, add corn, zucchini and any other veggies of your choice. Add your spices for mexican seasoning - I use paprika, chilli flakes and cumin, plus salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer on low/medium heat for 10 mins.

Step Four:

While the veggies are cooking, prep the salsa and guacamole. Make sure during this time to check on the stuffing and stirring occasionally. Adjust the heat as needed to make sure it doesn't burn or stick.

Before prepping the guac and salsa, check on the sweet potato. I always try to flip mine halfway to avoid burning and for a crispy fry.

For the salsa, simply dice some red onion, garlic and tomatoes (I use cherry tomatoes) and place in a mason jar or recycled salsa jar. For some additional texture, you can always add diced red peppers, jalapenos or other veggies of your choice. Add salt and pepper, and here I would add some good shakes of hot sauce as well for spice. Close the lid and shake the jar lightly to mix. Place in fridge until food is being served.

For the guacamole, cut an avocado in half, scoop out the insides and place in a big mixing bowl (I use a stainless steel one). Use a potato masher or fork to mash the avocado until smooth. Add in at least half a lime's juice and mix well. I then add some chopped red pepper, tomatoes or red onion for texture. I love adding spice to my guac - either chilli flakes or hot sauce gets added, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix again and place in fridge until food is ready to serve.

Step Five:

Once you make both dips, the veggies, potatoes and black beans should be done. If at any time the potatoes or veggies are done before other parts of the meal, simply turn the oven to low or off and the burner to low and off with a lid covering the veggies.

Now is the fun part of serving and eating this dish.

Simply add as many fries as you want, a good heap of veggies to one side and a good heap of black beans to the other. Lastly, dollop with some guac and salsa and garnish with green onion.

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