These Pesto Sweet Potato Bowls are a macro friendly recipe packed with flavor and nutrition! This is a great high protein meal prep option, that uses rotisserie chicken. A meal the whole family can enjoy. Find adaptations for vegan, vegetarian, paleo, and even how to serve this meal to toddlers, in this blog post.
What do I need for my Pesto Sweet Potato Bowls?
- Sheet Pan
- Skillet or Cast Iron Pan
- Rotisserie Chicken (or chickpeas)
- Sweet Potatoes
- Avocado or Olive Oil
- Pesto Sauce (homemade or store-bought)
- Red Onions
- Fresh Garlic
- Kale
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Feta Cheese
- Fresh Parsley
- Avocado
- Seasonings and Spices
Adapting Pesto Sweet Potato Bowls for Dietary Needs:
- Vegan Adaptation: For this meal I think the best substitute for the pesto chicken is to use canned chickpeas. Begin by draining and rinsing them well. You can use an air fryer, or a skillet to grill them. Season with garlic or onion powder, sea salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. When you remove you chickpeas from the pan, put them into a bowl and stir in your pesto sauce. Follow all other cooking instructions as follows, just sub out any of the chicken directions, and use chickpeas instead. For the feta cheese, simply leave that ingredient out or sub with a vegan cheese substitute.
- Vegetarian Adaptation: Follow the same instructions for the vegan option above, using chickpeas instead of rotisserie chicken. Everything else (toppings wise) are within the “vegetarian” diet.
- Paleo Adaptation: For Paleo diet, depending on your preference, you may substitute the oils out for coconut oil, and then leave out the feta cheese. Then you should be good to go!
- Toddler Friendly Meal Option: Let’s face it, food recipes for toddlers are hard to come by sometimes. So I like to serve the meals I make for my littles one, in a deconstructed version. I feed them the same food my husband and I eat, but I just break it down into more manageable portions for their little hands and mouths to eat. For this meal I would take each food ingredient and serve it in it’s own separate pile. For example a small pile of sweet potato, a small pile of pesto rotisserie chicken, a small pile of tomatoes, onions, kale, feta etc. I also keep some plain rotisserie chicken set aside for my toddler.
Assembling Pesto Sweet Potato Bowl:
When you are ready to assemble your pesto sweet potato meal, grab a large salad bowl(the bigger the better, so you don’t run out of room:). Take the warm sweet potato and place it in the bottom of the bowl. Smash it flat with a fork. I like to take a little bit of butter and spread it around the smashed sweet potato to melt. Then I add salt and pepper before adding my other toppings. Next, add pesto chicken, grilled kale, cherry tomatoes, sautéed onions, avocado, feta cheese, fresh parsley, and salt and pepper. Here is a link to my instagram where you can find a video of me assembling this bowl under the “reels” section. When you are ready to eat the bowl, take a good look at your pretty bowl, and then MIX IT ALL UP. Don’t skip this step, because you want all the flavors and textures of this bowl to be mixed into every bite!
How to prepare this recipe for meal prep:
To make this meal for the purpose of meal prep, all cooking instructions will be the same. Assembly instructions differ slightly, in order to preserve taste and quality of some of the toppings. Assemble your pesto sweet potato bowl as directed above, but leave out the avocado. For the cherry tomatoes, leave them whole in your meal prep containers, instead of slicing them in half. For Kale you have two options. You can add the kale leaves to your bowl fresh without adding any thing to it.(The kale leaf is naturally crisp so it should stay fresh in an airtight container until you are ready to eat it.) OR… If you have time, you can sauté your kale right before you eat your prepped meal, and add it to your bowl when you add your avocado. You can find how I prepare my raw kale in my post here, or you can follow sautéing instructions in the recipe card below.
Pesto Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
Equipment
- sheet pan
- skillet
- parchment paper (optional, but makes clean up a little easier!)
Ingredients
- 6 Sweet Potatoes peeled, cut in half
- 1 Rotisserie Chicken or 5 shredded chicken breast
- 5-6 tbsp Pesto Sauce or more if you like pesto!
- 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 2 Red Onions sliced thinly
- 5 cloves Fresh Garlic chopped or minced
- 1-3 tbsp Avocado Oil olive oil or coconut oil are great alternatives
- 1-2 tbsp Onion Powder or garlic powder
- 1-3 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp garlic salt or garlic powder and sea salt
Topping Options
- Feta Cheese
- Cherry Tomatoes halved
- Fresh Parsley
- Avocado cut into cubes
- 1 head Kale rinsed, pulled from stem, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425ºF(220ºC).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Sweet Potato Prep:
- Place sweet potatoes(peeled and cut in two) on lined baking sheet, and coat with avocado oil. Using your hands to spread oil evenly over potatoes. Next, coat with onion powder, salt, and pepper.(**SEE NOTES**)
- Bake Sweet potatoes for 30-40 minutes, until tender and cooked through.
Sautéed Onions and Garlic
- Slice purple onions thinly. Chop fresh garlic.
- Add two tablespoons of oil to a skillet and place over medium heat.
- Once pan is warm add onions are garlic. Cook until tender. Remove from heat.
Sautéed Kale
- Add chopped kale to a pre-heated pan, and drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of avocado oil. Toss kale in pan until the leaves begin to soften slightly. I like to keep them a little bit more firm to preserve nutrients, but if you like a softer texture, cook to desired tenderness.
Pesto Rotisserie Chicken
- Pick warm chicken from the bone and place all meat into a bowl.
- Add pesto and salt and pepper to taste
Assembling Pesto Sweet Potatoes
- First, smash sweet potato in the bottom of your bowl with a fork. Spread a little bit of butter over sweet potato, let it melt, and sprinkle with salt and pepper(**optional).
- Add pesto chicken, sautéed onions, sautéed kale, tomatoes, feta cheese, avocado, parsley, and any other toppings you choose!
- Mix it all up and Enjoy!
Notes
More Macro Friendly Recipes>>>
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This is now a go-to recipe for me! So healthy and so tasty!
Made this for lunch today and me an my husband loved it. Thanks for this great recipe, absolutely delicious, healthy and easy to make.
I love sweet potatoes and I love pest and these bowls look easy and are perfect for easy dinner nights!
I love all the flavors in here! Next time I’m going to meal prep this for lunches for the week. Thanks for the great recipe!
Loved this bowl recipe, so full of flavor!
Fantastic dinner recipe, we had this for a midweek meal, and it was delicious 🙂
This was incredible! I am always looking for new ways to enjoy pesto – will definately make it again.
YUM! Made these for lunch last week and they were excellent.
Delicious and so full of flavour!
Great flavors and textures in this salad!
Delicious, nutritious and flavourful:-)
Turned out great. Really easy with the rotisserie chicken. Thanks!
Wow! nutritious and yummy at the same time. Would prepare this Pesto Sweet Potato Bowls this weekend:) Thanks!:)
Healthy AND delicious! Definitely making this again!
A new favorite at our house!
Healthy and filling lunch for me and my daughter
thank you for the recipe
So happy to share! Glad you enjoy it!