Ground Turkey and Black Bean Baked Sweet Potato

Whoever thought to stuff a potato in general, is a creative genius. This is my Ground Turkey and Black Bean Sweet Potato and she is loaded with both flavor and nutrients. The one downfall of baking a sweet potato is the fact it needs about an hour to bake, but on the bright side you can wrap it up in foil and allow it to bake while you do other household chores. The rest of the steps only take an extra 15 minutes to do, so it's truly a simple recipe.

This is a great dinner option going into summer because you can also opt for grilling multiple sweet potatoes and setting up a "taco" bar filled with the ingredients below for you and your friends/family. It's the perfect solo dinner after a long day, but also a fun dinner option as well.

The best part of this recipe is how much fiber and nutrients we're obtaining - roughly 11 grams of fiber in this one meal and 25 grams of protein. You also have color from the pico de gallo, healthy fats from the olive oil and avocado, and flavor from the cotija cheese.

Yields: 1

Portion: 1 potato

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes hour

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

This recipe is gluten free. It can be easily dairy free without the addition of the cotija.

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Ingredients:

1 sweet potato, washed thoroughly

Ground turkey:

½ cup cooked ground turkey

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, chili powder

½ cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed

3 tbsp pico de gallo (Trader Joe's - or opt for making my fresh pico de gallo, recipe linked here.)

Cotija cheese to garnish

Fresh cilantro to garnish

3 avocado slices

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Instructions:

1. Preheat: preheat the oven to 425. Prep the sweet potato and poke holes into it with a fork. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake in oven for 45 minutes, or until the sweet potato is tender.

2. Turkey: in a frying pan, add in olive oil and ground turkey. Season with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika to your liking. Add a dash of chili powder. Cook until turkey is light brown and white on inside.

3. Cook the rest: once the sweet potato is done cooking, gently remove from the oven and unwrap foil. Slice a line down sweet potato and gently open to mash. Add ground turkey and black beans inside sweet potato. Garnish with cotija cheese to your liking. Drizzle olive oil on top and add a dash of salt. Bake in oven for an extra 10 minutes.

4. Serve: remove sweet potato from oven, add pico de gallo on top of sweet potato. Garnish with extra cotija cheese if you'd like, fresh cilantro, and avocado slices. Enjoy!

I hope you love this recipe as much as I did, so if you do, please leave me a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I always read through my suggestions and comments, so please let me know your thoughts. If you have any questions you can feel free to DM me here or through Instagram. Speaking of Instagram - please tag me in all of your creations! I love seeing how the recipes come out and seeing how talented you all are. Sending my love.

xoxo,

Jasmin D the RD