Sweet Potato Tacos – Mexican-inspired munchies!

May 27, 2022May 29, 2022 Stan

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Sweet potato taco on a plate, surrounded by other plates of fillings, including avocado, chickpeas & sour cream. | Hurry The Food Up

This Mexican sweet potato taco recipe is light, healthy and quick to whip up. You can have yummy tacos on your table in only 25 minutes!

The possibilities for vegetarian taco fillings are endless. We have decided to go for crispy fried sweet potatoes and chickpeas, topped with sour cream, pico de gallo and avocado.

Know your tacos!

But, first thing’s first: what is the difference between tacos and all those other wrap-related Mexican recipes, like burritos, enchiladas and quesadillas?

So: burritos are wheat tortilla wraps wrapped around a filling, usually of meat and refried beans. Enchiladas are the same, but baked in a sauce.

Quesadillas are made traditionally from corn tortillas, and contain cheese. They are folded and cooked on a griddle.

Tacos can be made from small corn or wheat tortillas that are either hard or soft. They are filled and folded, but not rolled up like burritos or enchiladas. The wrap acts like a hammock for the filling!

This is a vegetarian soft taco recipe that uses corn tortillas.

If you fancy more vegetarian Mexican recipes in this vein, check out our delicious sweet potato burritos or these 18 badass quesadilla recipes!

The ingredients for sweet potato tacos including chickpeas, sweet potatoes, limes, tomato, sour cream, spices .| Hurry The Food Up

Hitting the sweet spot with sweet potato tacos!

Given that this is a sweet potato taco recipe, we’ve got to give some time to sweet potatoes, the humble white potato’s funky relative and star of this particular show!

While we love white potatoes, we’ve got to admit that sweet potatoes are just generally nutritionally superior. Their sweet nutty flavour is irresistible and they are full of healthy stuff.

Sweet potatoes contain ENORMOUS amounts of vitamin A – one cup of sweet potato contains 7 x the daily recommended amount! Vitamin A is important for healthy vision, among other things.

Sweet potatoes also contain lots of antioxidants, which protect the body against free radicals.

Free radicals are unstable atoms that attack cells and damage DNA. Free radicals have been connected to many diseases, including dementia and parkinsons.

They are also highly fibrous, far more so than normal white potatoes. The fibre in sweet potatoes can help promote gut health and regulate digestion.

This can also promote weight loss, as we’ll explain in a bit!

In the meantime, we have a whole selection of vegetarian sweet potato recipes for you. Or if you want another sweet potato dinner recipe specifically, give our sweet potato soup a try.

Sweet potato and chickpeas in a frying pan, alongside a bowl of homemade pico de gallo. | Hurry The Food Up

Make time for tacos in your weight loss plan!

All with all our recipes, these Mexican sweet potato tacos have been designed with healthy weight loss in mind.

When doing this, the main things we take into consideration are: calories, fat, protein and fibre.

In terms of calories, we try to make sure that each meal we concoct has enough calories to give you the energy you need, and that all those calories come from good stuff that will keep you full for as long as possible.

This recipe contains 571 calories per serving.

Protein and fibre are some of the filling, good things we are talking about. Protein is essential for cell growth and repair, but more tangibly it helps to grow muscles, boost your metabolism and regulate appetite!

We make sure our recipes have plenty of protein, because those 3 things are extremely beneficial for weight loss. This recipe contains 15g protein per serving.

Fibre is super helpful for weight loss because it makes you feel full by literally suppressing the production of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. If you eat a filling, fibrous meal, you are less likely to want to snack between meals.

Our sweet potato taco recipe contains 19g fibre per portion.

In the centre is a sweet potato taco on a plate. At the sides of the image are another taco and other taco components including a bowl of pico de gallo and a plate of avocado. | Hurry The Food Up

Tip Top Taco Tips

There are a few things you can do to make sure this easy veggie taco recipe comes out as delicious as possible.

First thing to remember is to use small corn tortillas! Large tortillas are far too big and you won’t have enough filling to go round.

While we designed this with soft shell tacos in mind, you are welcome to try out hard shells and let us know how it goes in the comments!

Another thing you might want to try is par-boiling the sweet potato cubes before you fry them.

This isn’t strictly necessary, but if you are worried about them not cooking through, or if you want a softer filling, a few minutes in boiling water will sort that out for you.

If you don’t want to boil, then make sure that you don’t fry them on too high a heat – you don’t want them to burn on the outside before they cook through!

While you certainly could serve this vegetarian taco recipe with shop bought pico de gallo, or guacamole, we recommend sticking to our recipe if you are trying to lose weight.

Shop bought condiments often contain a lot of unnecessary fat, salt and sugar, which we should really cut out for best weight-loss results!

We hope you enjoy our delicious sweet potato tacos!

A sweet potato taco on a plate, surrounded by avocado, sweet potato, chickpeas, pico de gallo, sour cream etc. | Hurry The Food Up

Sweet Potato Tacos

Watching your weight but love Mexican food? Give taco night a healthy twist with these light, tasty sweet potato tacos!

1 medium sweet potato (roughly 6oz)
½ can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cumin, ground
½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp chili powder or chili flakes
½ tsp salt
⅓ cup low fat sour cream
1 jalapeño (divided)
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ avocado (sliced)
½ small white onion (minced)
½ small tomato (diced)
1 lemon
1 handful cilantro/coriander, fresh
6 corn tortillas
Lemon wedges (to serve)

Peel and dice the sweet potato into cubes of 1 cm or ½ an inch approximately.
1 medium sweet potato
In a medium sized non-stick pan over medium heat add the olive oil. Add the sweet potato and chickpeas and allow them to brown for about 8-10 minutes, mixing and moving them once in a while to achieve an homogenous golden colour. Halfway through add ½ tsp garlic powder, cumin, paprika, chili powder and ½ tsp salt and mix.
½ can chickpeas, 1 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp cumin, ground, ½ tsp paprika, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp chili powder or chili flakes
Blend or process the sour cream, ½ jalapeño and ¼ tsp garlic powder. Alternatively, you can finely dice the jalapeño and mix with the sour cream and garlic powder. Season with salt per taste. Slice the rest of the jalapeño and rest until needed.
⅓ cup low fat sour cream, 1 jalapeño, ¼ tsp garlic powder
Finely mince the tomato and the white onion. Add them to a small bowl along with the juice of 1 lemon and ½ tsp salt. Mix and rest until needed.
½ small white onion, ½ small tomato, 1 lemon
Heat a large skillet over medium-high. Working in batches, toast tortillas in a single layer, turning halfway through, until warmed through, about 1 minute total.
6 corn tortillas
Immediately serve tacos with golden sweet potato and chickpeas, sliced avocado, pico de gallo, cilantro leaves, sliced jalapeño, lemon wedges and sour cream jalapeño mix.
½ avocado, 1 handful cilantro/coriander, fresh, Lemon wedges