If you’re looking for inventive ways to use summer’s fresh bounty, YouTuber, blogger and cookbook author Kiki Nelson has some suggestions. Her recent cookbook, “Plantifully Simple: 100 Plant-Based Recipes and Meal Plans for Health and Weight Loss” (Simon Element, $32.50), offers 100 recipes for plant-based eating in support of weight-loss goals.
While it’s not immediately intuitive to, say, heap taco fillings on a sweet potato, the combo works, says Nelson. The potato’s natural creaminess blends with beans, guacamole, cheese sauce and cashew lime crema and pico de gallo, turning a simple tuber into something memorable and even more delicious than usual. The cookbook has recipes for plant-based versions of that cheese sauce and crema, but you can use your favorite standard versions, of course.
You’ll find the pico de gallo recipe here. Meanwhile, here are the how-tos for the taco-fied sweet potato. Serves 1 1 medium sweet potato 1⁄4 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed 1⁄4 cup fresh or drained canned corn 2 tablespoons guacamole 1⁄4 cup cheese sauce, warmed 2 tablespoons crema 1⁄4 cup pico de gallo Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pierce the sweet potato all over with a knife. Set it on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until a knife slides easily into the center.
When the sweet potato is cool enough to handle, slice it in half lengthwise and use a fork to fluff the middle. Top each half with the beans, corn, and guacamole, then drizzle with the cheese sauce and crema. Top with a dollop of pico de gallo and dig in.
Excerpted from PLANTIFULLY SIMPLE: 100 Plant-Based Recipes and Meal Plans for Health and Weight-Loss. Copyright @ 2024 by Kiki Nelson. Photography Copyright © 2024 by Kiki Nelson.
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