These Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Smoky Red Pepper Sauce are a vibrant, veggie-packed meal that’s both hearty and wholesome. Roasted sweet potatoes are filled with a zesty black bean and corn mixture, then topped with a creamy, smoky red pepper sauce made with coconut milk and warm spices. It’s a satisfying plant-based dish that’s easy to prepare and full of bold, layered flavors—perfect for a weeknight dinner or meal prep. This recipe is part of my April 2025 Budget Grocery Series where I turn a grocery haul into your dinners for the week. Watch the full recipe video here.

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Smoky Red Pepper Sauce Ingredients

Sweet Potatoes: Sweet potatoes are the ideal versatile, nutrient-dense carb source. Their slightly sweet flavor goes with everything from salty and savory, to nutty and sweet. For these stuffed sweet potatoes we have a combo of both thanks to the corn and smokey sauce. I always aim for a medium potato (about 2 inches at the widest part and about 5 inches long).

Roasted Red Peppers: These give the sauce its vibrant color and smoky-sweet flavor. When blended, they create a velvety texture that complements the richness of the coconut milk. Roasting deepens their flavor, making them the star of the sauce.

Coconut Milk: Full-fat coconut milk adds creaminess and body to the red pepper sauce while keeping it dairy-free. It smooths out the spices and helps the sauce cling to the sweet potatoes. Its subtle sweetness pairs naturally with the roasted vegetables.

Cumin: Cumin is warm, earthy, and slightly nutty—one of those spices that instantly makes a dish feel heartier and more grounded. In this recipe, cumin is used to season the sweet potato filling, giving it a savory backbone that contrasts the natural sweetness of the potatoes. It also ties in beautifully with the smokey red pepper sauce. Just a small amount goes a long way in building flavor throughout the dish.

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Smokey Red Pepper Sauce

Recipe by Jenn Lueke

5.0 from 19 votes

Servings

–

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

These Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Smokey Red Pepper Sauce are a vibrant, veggie-packed meal that’s both hearty and wholesome. Roasted sweet potatoes are filled with a zesty black bean and corn mixture, then topped with a creamy, smoky red pepper sauce made with coconut milk and warm spices. It’s a satisfying plant-based dish that’s easy to prepare and full of bold, layered flavors—perfect for a weeknight dinner or meal prep. This recipe is part of my April 2025 Budget Grocery Series where I turn a grocery haul into your dinners for the week.

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Ingredients

For the Sweet Potatoes
4 medium sweet potatoes, halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon olive oil
kosher salt
For the Filling
15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
15 ounce can corn, drained
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped, additional for garnish
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
For the Smokey Red Pepper Sauce
1 cup roasted red peppers (8 ounces)
3/4 cup full-fat coconut milk (half of a 13.5-ounce can)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.
Place the 8 sweet potato halves on the sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt. Use clean hands to spread the oil and salt, covering each half, then place face down on the sheet pan. Bake until fork tender, 28 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the sweet potatoes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large bowl, toss the black beans, corn, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, chili powder, salt, and cumin and set aside.
Make the red pepper sauce: Add the roasted red peppers, coconut milk, olive oil, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, and salt to a blender or food processor. Blend on high speed until completely smooth, 30 to 45 seconds.
When the sweet potatoes are done baking, flip each half over and gently mash the insides. Place 2 halves on each plate and evenly divide the filling between them, followed by a generous drizzle of roasted red pepper sauce. Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and serve.

Notes

Storage: Refrigerate the sweet potatoes, filling, and sauce in separate sealed containers. The potatoes and filling will last up to 4 days, the dressing will last up to 7 days. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Reheating: From refrigerator, microwave the sweet potatoe until warm with a damp paper twoel over top, about 2 minutes. Assemble components. From frozen, thaw in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight, then heat as instructed.
Protein: Add a second source of protein with some cooked ground chicken, turkey, beef, or shredded chicken.
Cook Time: Depending on the size of your potatoes, baking could take up to 40 minutes. Aim for sweet potatoes that are about 2 inches at their widest.

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13 Comments

I wasn’t sure about the red pepper sauce on its own, but the flavor worked so well with the sweet potato and filling! Delicious and easy meal.

Incredible!

Easy, quick, delicious! The flavors all go so perfectly together! The sauce was delicious and well worth the trip to the store to get the roasted red peppers. My husband added some grilled chicken and loved that addition too. I think it’s perfect as is!!!!

That red pepper sauce is so good on this! I roasted the sweet potatoes as cubes just to make it faster and ate it over a bed of spinach. It’s such a good, satisfying meal. This is definitely going in to the rotation!

My family loved this and it will be made again. It was our Cinco de Mayo dinner. I made sweet and russet potatoes since my kids don’t like sweet. I added ground chicken and a little extra seasoning to the filling which was great since they go heavy on the filling and there was enough for leftovers then. I bought the ingredients for everything else this week and we’re excited for the next recipe!

Excellent recipe! I totally enjoyed it. The sauce isn’t my cup of tea as is but paired with the potatos it really balances everything out!

Adapted this one to low-potassium and more kidney-friendly by replacing the sweet potato with baked Parmesan polenta cakes and replacing the black beans with roasted cauliflower.
Added protein with slow cooker BBQ country style pork ribs.
SO delicious!

This is my new favorite way to cook sweet potatoes for any recipe. Full send. The caramelized top is so good!
Only had regular paprika, but pepper sauce still tasted great.
I am GF/DF & we are trying to eat a few vegetarian meals per week & this one was a perfect flavor combo & very satiating.

This was delicious! Maybe less broth in the sauce but otherwise added to the very tiny list of veg recipes my husband is okay with.

My boyfriend and I loved it! He said he could eat it every day and we should make it once a week! Def going to add to our rotation. Thank you!

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Making this for a second time tonight!! We added pulled pork carnitas from the crockpot as a protein, and it was AMAZING. The sauce is great!! Reheats wonderfully – feels like something you would order at a restaurant!

I came here first to say, I have tried roasted red pepper sauces before and not liked them. Did not at ALL expect that I would LOVE this sauce, but here we are! Like other commenters have noted, I think it compliments the sweet potato really well. Also a word of warning, I let quite a bit of the liquid from the roasted red pepper jar into the blender and it made the sauce really runny—next time I’ll avoid that.

Highly suggest using Japanese sweet potatoes if you can find them! It’s still sweet but I think it melds better with the other flavors. I tested this recipe with three sweet potatoes: red garnet (classic), jersey, and Japanese sweet potatoes. Jersey was the sweetest, then red garnet, then the Japanese sweet potato.

Tried a dash of garlic powder vs a dash of onion powder sprinkled separately on top of the final assembled stuffed potatoes—both tasty additions. Either would work great.

Love Ashley’s idea of cubing these and serving them on spinach. I’ll try that next time so they can be more of a bowl type meal. The halves are pretty for presentation, but a bit more faff to eat out of. Or what if you threw all that into a wrap with lettuce or spinach to make it slightly more filling for hungrier folks? So many possibilities!

Definitely will be making this again. Considering using it as a Thanksgiving main for GF and/or vegan peeps.