These Sweet Potato and Black Bean Meal Prep Bowls are topped with a flavorful cilantro lime pesto and their so delicious! They’re packed with healthy ingredients and and great for a vegan meal prep recipe.
We’re finally getting some cold weather here!! Right now, I’m laying on the couch under a blanket and a cat with the (fake) fireplace cracking away. I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty perfect 🙂
It’s supposed to get to 80 next Monday, but right now it’s only 57, so that’s what I’m going to focus on. As much as I complain about the desert heat, I’m not so sure I could live in a place that get’s really cold during the winter because it’s 57 and I’m freezing right now, but I do kinda love it at the same time.
I’ve been really focusing on healthy vegetarian meal prep this month and this is my last meal prep lunch recipe for January. I’m still going to post them throughout the other months because meal prep has been a lifesaver these days, so I hope you all enjoy them too!
I feel like I have so many recipes that contain sweet potatoes and black beans but I really wanted to do an easy meal prep lunch with them. I wanted to add a fresh and fun element to these bowls so I made the cilantro lime pesto and it’s so good! It adds so much flavor and really ties everything together.
As much as I love traditional basil pesto, I also really enjoy making my own pesto and using different flavors. I make a kale pesto all the time and now I’m hooked on this Cilantro Lime version.
These Sweet Potato and Black Bean Meal Prep Bowls with Cilantro Lime Pesto are perfect for a delicious and healthy vegan meal prep lunch! You could also make them as one big salad or they could be an easy weeknight dinner 🙂 Enjoy!
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Sweet Potato and Black Bean Meal Prep Bowls with Cilantro Lime Pesto
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A healthy and delicious vegan meal prep lunch recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, or oil of choice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3/4 cups dried quinoa, or your favorite grain
- 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed (1 1/2 cups)
- 2–4 cups favorite salad greens*
- Sliced avocado for serving, if desired
Cilantro Lime Pesto:
- 2 cup baby spinach leaves
- 1 cup cilantro leaves
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, or your favorite nut
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. On a large sheet pan, toss together the sweet potato, olive oil and spices. Bake sweet potato until fork tender, about 35 minutes.
- Cook quinoa according to package directions.
- Add all pesto ingredients to a food processor, or blender, and blend until combined.
- Assemble bowls: I like to use glass meal prep containers, but you could also use plastic. In each container add 1/4 of the quinoa, 1/4 of the sweet potatoes, 1/3 cup of black beans, 1 large spoonful of pesto (you may have some leftover) and a handful of greens (1/2-1 cup)*.
- For serving: I like to add some avocado and drizzle some liquid aminos over.
Notes
*If using a non-hearty salad green, like mixed greens, you will want to add that on the morning of, rather than when prepping all the bowls. If the greens aren’t super hearty they may get wilted over the course of 4 days.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Category: Lunch, Meal Prep, Vegan, Gluten Free
- Method: Oven, Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Love everything about this! Great hot and cold. Sweet potatoes are so that I sometimes just make them on there own. And the pesto is magical ✨
This was the first of creation I’ve tried and I’ll be back for more!!!
That’s so nice to hear!!
Hello! Can you provide macros for this recipe please? Mainly the carbs and protein 🙂
Just added the info in the recipe card! The fat is a little high but that is only if you use all of the pesto.
Thought I’d give a little feedback since I have made this maybe 20 times so far. This is my absolute favorite thing to make! It is so delicious and works perfectly with my restricting emilination diet. The sauce is to DIE for. I always keep a jar in the fridge for whenever I may need it. Thank you so much for sharing! ? will be looking for other ideas from you!!
Awww, thank you SO much! That’s really nice to hear!
This sounds so good, I can’t wait to make this recipe! Is the nutritional yeast necessary for the pesto or could I leave it out without too big of a change? Thanks!
It does make it creamier, like dairy pesto, but you can leave it out, it would just give it a different taste 🙂
This looks like a great food prep option. When you eat it for lunch, do you warm it up, or eat it cold like a salad?
I just eat it cold!
This was my first time trying meal prepping, I’m a college student on my own for the first time over the summer and I need to make lunches for myself otherwise I’ll go hungry. I tried this one because I’m a huge fan of sweet potatoes and the pesto sounded so good. So glad I tried this for my first time, I definitely think I’ll be making this again in the future. Couple of notes, I have a pretty big appetite so it didn’t look like the 1 sweet potato was going to cut it. Used 3 fairly decently sized sweet potatoes instead and doubled the amount of spices. Also added a bit of cinnamon to them, and glad I did, it really helps the sweetness of the potatoes pop out amidst the rest of the flavors from the pesto. I couldn’t stop eating the potatoes by themselves, so tasty! I ended up using brown rice since that was what I had, and ended up using 2 cans of black beans. Also, can I just say, I really loved that pesto??. I’ve only tried making basil pesto in the past and this was such a tasty, tangy alternative. I’d never used nutritional yeast before and it made the whole thing smell kind of different the first day I made it but I ended up not being able to tell the taste apart once it was combined with everything. Overall, super delicious recipe and easy to make (I’m a slow chopper so that one’s on me) and I’ll definitely be making it again. Thanks for posting!
Thank you so much for your comment! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! The pesto is one of my favorites too 🙂
Is the nutritional yeast the braggs seasoning? or is it actual yeast?
The braggs seasoning 🙂
I absolutely love this recipe! It’s so easy, healthy and delicious to put together for the week. Do you have any suggestions for mixing up this recipe for when you’d like a change?
I’m so glad to hear you like it!! For mixing it up, you could use any other herb rather than cilantro to make a different flavor pesto, you could use a different kind of bean and grain. You could do sautéed tofu instead of sweet potato. Add some chunky salsa! I hope those help! I’ll let you know if I think of more!
Saw this and made it for dinner. It was quick and easy, and the cilantro lime pesto was amazing. What an incredible combination of taste.
Awesome! So glad to hear you liked it! 🙂
yum! definitely going to save this to make for workweek lunches. also love that your pesto recipe uses spinach instead of basil (i often have a hard time finding basil in a large enough quantity to make pesto!). thank you!
I have a hard time finding lots of basil too and it can be so expensive! Spinach is cheap and combines nicely with any other herbs you want to throw in! I hope you enjoy 🙂
You know I LOVE me some sweet potatoes + black beans … and with that cilantro pesto! Yas! This sounds delicious!
You are on a role with your meal prep bowls, Izzy! I love you cilantro pesto especially. I make something similar with pepita seeds, but I can see how walnuts would go really well with the other flavors. Glad you’re getting a little bit of winter.