Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

The Method for Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

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1. Put the sliced onion in a bowl with the vinegar, sugar and salt, press it under, and leave while you cook everything else. It needs 15 minutes and no more attention.

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2. Heat the oven to 220°C / 425°F. Toss the sweet potato with the oil, chipotle, cumin, paprika and salt.

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3. Spread over a large tray in a single layer — two trays if it is crowded — and roast 25 to 30 minutes, turning once, until the edges are charred and the middles are soft.

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4. Meanwhile heat the tablespoon of oil in a pan, cook the garlic 30 seconds, then add the beans, cumin and 4 tablespoons of water.

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5. Simmer 5 minutes, mashing about a third of the beans against the side of the pan, until thick and scoopable. Stir in the lime juice and salt.

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6. Warm the tortillas one at a time in a dry pan, 20 seconds a side, until pliable and blistered. Keep them stacked under a cloth.

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7. Build each taco with beans first, then sweet potato, then avocado, pickled onions and coriander, with a lime wedge alongside.

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Things to Watch For

1. Single layer on the tray. Crowded sweet potato steams and never chars.
2. Beans on the bottom. They glue everything else to the tortilla.
3. Warm the tortillas in a dry pan, not a microwave — the blistering is half the flavour.

Swaps and Variations

• Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

About This Recipe

Sweet potato is high in sugar and low in starch compared with a normal potato, so it caramelises fast and burns faster — 220°C / 428°F and a single layer gets the char without turning the middle to mush. The pickled onions are doing structural work, not garnish: everything else on the taco is soft, sweet and rich, and the sharpness is what stops the whole thing tasting like a purée. Fifteen minutes in vinegar is enough for the colour to turn and the raw bite to go.

What to Serve It With

A cold Mexican lager · Charred corn · Hot sauce

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: One Pan Mexican Rice, Pan de Muerto, Mexican Red Rice.

Storing Leftovers

The components keep 4 days refrigerated and the pickled onions 2 weeks. Assemble to order.

What's in a Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: a drained tin is counted at its full weight, liquid included, so those lines run high; part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.

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