Cottage Cheese Sweet Potato Bowls

How to make

With just a couple of steps, mostly hands off cooking time, you have an amazing meal! Love cottage cheese and avocado? You have to check out my Cottage Cheese Avocado Toast – so good for breakfast!

Ingredients

Let’s take a quick look at some of the ingredients here. We’ll talk about more substitutions lower in the post.

olive oil: Really, any higher heat neutral flavored oil will work here. Feel free to use olive oil, grapeseed oil, avocado, or your favorite. The oil helps to get some browning on the sweet potatoes, and helps the taco seasoning stick to the lentils.

taco seasoning:  Use a store-bought packet or try homemade taco seasoning. I love the fact that homemade doesn’t have any salt, so if you’re watching your sodium intake, it’s a great option.

cottage cheese: I recommend full fat large curd cottage cheese, but use your favorite.

Roast the sweet potatoes

The roasted sweet potatoes are the base of the bowl. I prefer to roast mine in cubes, though I have seen these bowls made with mashed sweet potatoes. Toss the chopped sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon oil and the spices and roast them.

Oven

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into cubes, about ½ to 1 inch in size. Try to keep them roughly similar in size so they all cook at the same time. Then roast them in the oven on a parchment paper lined sheet pan for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Check out my recipe for Roasted Sweet Potatoes for more details.

Air Fryer

Sweet potatoes can also be cooked in the air fryer. Check out my Air Fryer Sweet Potatoes for more details. With two sweet potatoes, I recommend cooking them in the oven, as the air fryer needs room around the food to allow for air to circulate. You can also cook the sweet potatoes in the air fryer in batches if you prefer.

Cook the lentils

Buy the freshest lentils you can. Fresh lentils cook more quickly and won’t split their skins when they’re cooked.

You can use canned lentils instead of cooking them from dried to make it super quick and easy. A word of caution though, I find that freshly cooked from dried lentils have a better texture than canned ones.

For dried lentils: pour the dried lentils in a colander, rinse them under cool tap water to remove any dust or dirt, and take a look at them to remove any hidden stones or tiny shriveled lentils. Always examine and sort as you rinse to ensure maximum wholesomeness. Rinsing them also helps reduce those carbohydrates that might cause gas.

For this recipe, the lentils are cooked on the stove. They can be cooked in water or vegetable broth for even more flavor. Cooking the lentils takes about a half hour and is as simple as bringing some water to boil, and letting them simmer.

If lentils are cooked in too rapid of a boil, they can split their skins and get mushy. To avoid this, bring the pot just to a boil, then reduce the heat to low so that you see just a few bubbles in the water and some gentle movement in the lentils. They will plump up nicely without splitting their skins or becoming mushy.

Drain any excess liquid from the pot. Stir 1 tablespoon oil and the taco seasoning into the cooked and drained lentils.

Assemble the bowls

Then, you’ll just portion out the four bowls with one quarter of the sweet potatoes, one quarter of the lentils, ½ cup of cottage cheese, one quarter of the avocado slices, and sprinkle with cilantro. Sprinkle each bowl with red pepper flakes and a drizzle of hot honey if desired.

Meal prep and storage

These Cottage Cheese Sweet Potato Bowls are a great meal prep idea! You’ll want to cook the ingredients and store them separately in the fridge for up to a week. Then, just assemble the bowls when you’re ready to eat.

I like the ingredients in the bowls served cold from the fridge, but if you prefer to reheat, simply pop the lentils and sweet potatoes in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stovetop until warmed through.

Changes to the recipe

I love bowls because they’re super customizable. Switch this up based on what’s in the fridge and needs to be used up, on your preferences, or on your dietary needs.

The original viral recipe was drizzled with hot honey. Since I know many of my readers are watching their sugar intake, I left that part off of my recipe. I don’t really think it needs it anyway; the bowls are so delicious without it. But feel free to add some if you like, and here’s a homemade Hot Honey recipe for you. I found the sprinkle of red pepper flakes to be great. You could also add a drizzle of your favorite hot sauce like Cholula or my Flamin’ Hot Sauce.

My version of these bowls is vegetarian with lentils. Lentils are great nutrition, but you could also use tofu, black beans, chickpeas, or even a plant-based meat alternative. Make them meaty with ground beef (like the original) or use ground turkey, heck, even use thinly sliced steak.

I’ve seen some versions of these bowls using plain Greek yogurt instead of the cottage cheese. You could also blend the cottage cheese to make it smooth. You can also top the bowls with crumbled cotija cheese, queso fresco, or crumbled feta.

I love serving the ingredients on fresh spinach or other leafy greens.

Use different veggies like roasting regular potatoes (check out my recipe for sheet pan roasted potatoes), or use another grain like brown rice, bulgur, or quinoa. Some versions of the recipe even use mashed sweet potatoes; you could try upping the flavor with my Mashed Maple Sweet Potatoes.

Toss in more veggies like chopped red pepper, shredded carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, or chopped red onion.

There are lots of toppings ideas for these as well. Top the bowls with pickled onions, green onions, salsa, a squeeze of lime, or sliced jalapenos.

Add even more protein with some black beans mixed in with the lentils. Top each bowl with a fried egg.

Crunch it up by topping with some tortilla chips, toasted almonds, or pepitas.

More Bowl Recipes to Try

I’ve been on a big bowl kick lately. And I think you’ll love these other ideas as well: Chimichurri Bowls, Sushi Bowls, Winter Grain Bowls, and Teriyaki Salmon Bowls.