Bold, savoury flavours are the perfect pairing for the rustic and filling sweetness of sweet potatoes. Take advantage of the oven to make a lot of good, hearty food in one go.

Time: 4/5
Takes more than an hour, but that’s compensated by a large batch size 

Effort: 3/5
Stand next to a pot and sometimes stir. Wait for oven timer to ring.

Big on Basics

Long time viewers may have gathered that I, unlike most of my audience, am not from the US. But every now and then, my curiosity leads me to try American cuisine. From fajitas made with steak or chicken, to tomato soup and grilled cheese, to actually going to the States to try the food there.

This time, I wanted to base my meal prep around something other than rice. I had some initial success with baked sweet potatoes, so I wanted to see if the oven was as good of a meal prep tool as the rice cooker when it comes to making carbs.

Long story short, it works, but it presents a new problem. I rely a lot on the oven when I meal prep my proteins (case in point: the many, many oven roasted chicken and rice recipes I have on this site), but now that the oven is occupied I have to cook my protein on the stove.

Which is where the taco beef comes in! Besides being thematically appropriate, there’s the added advantage that there are even less dishes to do because my stainless steel pan is dishwasher safe, and there’s no cleanup needed at all for the sweet potatoes if I line the baking sheet with aluminium foil.

Although I must admit, I took some liberties with the taco beef by sneaking in some diced bell peppers and onions in there – something about the combo just makes me think American food. It’s a nice bit of extra vegetables to complement the plentiful amount of fiber already in the sweet potatoes, and it adds volume to the meal so it keeps me full for longer.

Besides, other bloggers do it too so I don’t think I’m committing some sort of culinary sacrilege here. Although perhaps I should still stay on my toes, seeing how worked up you all get over whether or not beans belong in chili.

But back to the subject at hand. Taco beef is another one of those American recipes that I’m not quite sure I ever tried an authentic version of – whatever that means. But after taking reference from several online recipes, I believe I did a pretty good job here. After all, it’s meat simmered in spices and aromatics, and that’s a basic formula that is hard to get wrong.

Overall, this was a nice meal prep. Tender sweet potatoes were a great compliment to the meaty and savoury taco meat, and the vegetables I sneaked into the recipe weren’t really noticeable.

Two wins there, but one thing I learned is that it’s entirely possible to overcrowd an oven just like a skillet. It took much more than I expected to roast the sweet potatoes, and it might be because they were piled up way high in there. So take the instructions I give here with a grain of salt – your mileage may vary based on the size and power of your oven, relative to the quantity of food you’re trying to cook.

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 2

Dramatis Personae

Served 9.

• 3lb sweet potatoes 

My grandmother is a treasure trove of culinary wisdom, and her advice on sweet potatoes is to not cook them the day you buy them. Instead, leave them to dry out in a cool dark place for a couple days, to concentrate their sugars.

I haven’t tried a true A/B test for this, but I take it as license to give myself permission to buy groceries several days in advance. Sometimes meal prep is easier if you know you don’t have to do the whole thing in one go.

• 1500g ground beef

Another trick for meal prepping with minimal prep is to do it with ground meat. The large surface area to volume ratio means the meat picks up flavour very well without needing any marinading or prior preparation. I take advantage of this in my other recipes like this edamame and pork stir fry, and the classic Pad Krapao Moo.

Vegetables

• 1 large onion
• 2 each of green, yellow and red bell peppers

Whenever there’s a stew-like situation going on where lots of small pieces of food get cooked together for some time, it’s an opportunity to sneak in vegetables for someone who doesn’t like vegetables.

By the way, did you know that all bell peppers come from the same plant, regardless of the colour? The pepper changes colour as it ripens.

Spices

• 2 tbsp Paprika
• 1 tbsp Cumin
• 2 tbsp Garlic powder
• 1 tbsp Onion powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Savoury and aromatic without having to mess around with peeling garlic cloves and so on. This type of cooking really appeals to me in how convenient it is to make a tasty meal – just shake several shakers over a simmering pot, and let the spices carry the day!

It’s not refined or fancy, but it is a good enough meal, and in my humble opinion “good enough” is as good a warcry as any for the home cook who is just looking to feed themselves.

Executive summary

1. Preheat oven to 180C/360F. Scrub the sweet potatoes well, lay on a baking sheet, cover with aluminium foil, and bake for about 1.5 hours.
2. Dice bell peppers and onion.
3. Brown ground beef in a pan.
4. Add peppers, onion and spices to the pan and stir them in. Fry until aromatic.
5. Simmer the taco beef for about 15 minutes, adding liquid if desired.
6. Once sweet potatoes are tender, assemble and serve.

Play by Play

Last things first. Scrub the sweet potatoes very well. They come with a ton of dirt on the surface, but the skin has a lot of nutrients and adds texture to the meal.

Wrapping the sweet potatoes in foil so they can steam while they bake. This step is entirely unnecessary if I was working with a reasonable amount of sweet potatoes, but I got greedy with the portion sizes.

This is how I like to cut bell peppers: go around the core and cut big pieces off the ribs, then cut into strips, then turn and dice. Another cut will sort out the flesh on the bottom.

I won’t have any down time until after the beef is simmering, so all the knife work gets done in advance.

Brown the beef, add the spices and vegetables. I’m not concerned about overcrowding the pan – it’s less work this way, and I don’t need to worry about overcooking something that is going to end up in a stew.

You may want to add some stock as the beef simmers, but I like to keep the sauce tight. Adding salt draws out moisture from the vegetables, and I find that’s enough to deglaze the pan.

Once the beef is simmering, there’s nothin much to do besides wait until the sweet potatoes are soft enough to be easily pierced by a chopstick.

It might not be the prettiest plate of food, but it’s filling and hearty and super tasty!

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