Sweet Potato Bowls with chickpeas, kale and bacon

Mashed sweet potato bowls topped with roasted chick peas, sautéed wilted kale and crispy bacon make a hearty veggie-based meal that will fill you up!

 

Let’s talk about layers.

Flavor layers. Texture layers. Bacon layers.

These sweet potato bowls have it all going on.

Sweet, fluffy mashed sweet potatoes. Crispy, cajun-seasoned roasted chick peas. Tender sautéed kale. All layered and topped off with crispy crumbled bacon. Hello, happy dinner!

You could certainly skip the bacon and have this be a delicious vegetarian meal. You'll get plenty of protein from the chickpeas.

(They make an excellent snack all on their own, if you've never tried them seasoned and roasted like this. Very crunchy and pop-able - and very addictive! Check out my BBQ roasted chickpeas for a different twist.)

I sometimes serve these sweet potato bowls for our meatless Monday dinner, even though it technically isn’t meatless.

But if you aren’t vegetarian, I highly recommend the bacon. It's still a very healthy dinner. And let’s face it, bacon makes things taste better!

I also love how very, very budget-friendly this dinner is.

Basic ingredients made into a delicious, well-rounded meal. Each part of the meal gets a little love on its own and then they all come together for a yummy, wholesome dinner bowl.

I particularly like being able to get a little bit of everything all in one bite. YUM!

OK, let's cover a few quick recipe tips for these sweet potato bowls.

If you just want the recipe, keep scrolling down to the recipe card. It's at the end of the post, just above the comments section.

Ingredient Notes:

• Sweet potatoes: I prefer a simple base of mashed sweet potatoes with just salt and pepper. Feel free to add some butter. Or you could just cube and roast your sweet potatoes for a different texture.
• Chickpeas: Use some homemade cooked chickpeas or a rinsed and drained can of chickpeas. They need to be cooked before they go into the oven to roast. Also, feel free to change up the seasonings on them if you'd like.
• Kale: I like how hearty this green is in the recipe; it can stand up to the other flavors and ingredients. However, you could try this with spinach if you prefer.
• Bacon: Highly recommend, but as mentioned, you can leave it off if you need this recipe to be vegetarian. You could also use a plant-based bacon swap if you want. Cook it in the skillet to use the grease for the kale or you could make oven bacon or microwave bacon.

Also, you can certainly meal prep this for a delicious lunch or to have ready to go for dinner.

I recommend keeping the components separate so the chickpeas and bacon remain crispy.

Hope you love these sweet potato bowls as much as we do!

Enjoy!

XO,

Kathryn

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Sweet Potato Bowls with chickpeas, kale and bacon

Mashed sweet potatoes bowls topped with roasted chick peas, sautéed wilted kale and crispy bacon make a hearty veggie-based meal that will fill you up!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Yield: 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 3 sweet potatoes
• 1 ½ cups cooked chick peas patted dry (see notes)
• 2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon cajun seasoning
• 6 strips of bacon
• 1 large bunch kale, stems removed, leaves washed and roughly torn
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Bake sweet potatoes. Wash sweet potatoes, poke with a fork and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 1 to 1.5 hours, until very tender. Once cool enough to handle, remove potato skin and put sweet potato in a bowl. Mash with a fork and season with salt and pepper.
• Roast chickpeas. Meanwhile, toss the chickpeas with olive oil and cajun seasoning. Roast at 400 for 30 minutes. (I stick them in when the sweet potatoes have about 20 minutes left, so they’re ready to go once the sweet potatoes are cooked and mashed).
• Cook bacon. While the sweet potatoes and chickpeas are roasting, cook your bacon. I do mine in the skillet on the stove over medium heat until crispy on both sides, about 10 minutes. (See notes below for oven or microwave versions of how to cook bacon.) Remove the bacon to a paper towel to drain.
• Saute kale. In the same skillet, use the bacon grease to cook the kale. (Or use 1-2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil.) Put the torn kale leaves in the skillet and cook over medium low, stirring occasionally, until tender and slightly wilted, about 5-6 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper.
• Assemble the bowls. Place the mashed potatoes in the bottom of each bowl, top with kale and crispy chick peas and then crumble the bacon over the top. I do a piece and a half of bacon for each person. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Sweet potatoes: I prefer a simple base of mashed sweet potatoes with just salt and pepper. Feel free to add some butter. Or you could just cube and roast your sweet potatoes for a different texture.

Chickpeas: Use some homemade cooked chickpeas or a rinsed and drained can of chickpeas. They need to be cooked before they go into the oven to roast and should be patted dry so they can crisp up. Feel free to change up the seasonings on them if you'd like.

Kale: I like how hearty this green is in the recipe; it can stand up to the other flavors and ingredients. However, you could try this with spinach if you prefer.

Bacon: Highly recommend, but as mentioned, you can leave it off if you need this recipe to be vegetarian. You could also use a plant-based bacon swap if you want. Cook it in the skillet to use the grease for the kale or you could make oven bacon or microwave bacon.

Meal prep: You can meal prep this but I recommend storing the components separately so the chickpeas and bacon remain crisp.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 289kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 678mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 9g

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