Sweet Potato Mexican Salad Bowls

It starts with preparing your homemade salsa if you’re making it from scratch (see recipe section below). Making the salsa ahead of time is a huge time saving WIN when it comes to bowl assembling during the work week when time is limited.

Now, you can also do as I did and go with what was easiest at the moment: a store bought salsa. I like to go for this one. Once opened, this salsa keeps fresh for about 1-1.5 weeks, so keep that in mind. Be sure to keep either the homemade or store bought salsas sealed and refrigerated for them to stay fresh.

Next up, you make your Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette. And as the name implies, you’ll have to roast some garlic cloves to get it done. So turn on that oven to 400 F. Peel a few garlic cloves, like 8 or 10, add them to a large piece of foil, drizzle some olive oil on them, create a little pouch packet with the foil so the cloves are nice and protected, and roast those babies up for about 15-20 minutes.

Once the garlic cloves are roasted, let them cool well before you mix them up with the rest of the vinaigrette ingredients. You’ll want to mix the ingredients in a bowl, no need to whip out your blender here. A simple bowl and fork will mix that vinaigrette nicely and easily. You want the roasted garlics to remain whole, as they add a whole new level of satisfying textures to your salad bites.

Next comes roasting your sweet potatoes in the oven. Increase that oven temp to 450 F, and peel and cube your sweet potatoes. You want the cubes to be equal in size and on the smaller size, as this helps them roast evenly and well. You’ll drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle some salt and pepper on them, and leave them in the oven for about 25-35 minutes. Check on them and give them the occasional flip, to allow them to cook on all sides. Your kitchen will smell heavenly. Yum.

While the potatoes are going, open up those corn and bean cans. Now, I know these are not Paleo Ingredients, but I love to add both to my Mexican bowls. If you don’t eat corn or beans, then simply substitute them with things like chopped cucumber, celery, carrots or zucchini. Your preferred veggies will work well! If you do opt for the corn and beans, drain and rinse them well, and set them aside.

Now, bowl assembly. The best part! Why? Because it means you get to eat soon! You start with setting up four large salad bowls, adding a nice bed of greens to each, add the corn, beans, sweet potatoes and salsa, and then dress it up with: a generous amount of Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette, a few squirts of green hot sauce and some salt and pepper to taste. So easy. So good.

You can obviously customize these bowls per your preference. For example, you can chose to only use the vinaigrette and avoid adding the salsa and the hot sauce. You could also chose your preferred bean, or avoid it completely. Possibilities are endless. But this is a great base template for you to use for your own Mexican salad bowls, so be sure to use it when craving a nice Mexican-style salad.