This colorful, perfectly seasoned, nutrient-dense salad bowl blows every other taco salad out of the water. Made with simple ingredients—including a mind-blowingly delicious and easy dairy-free queso—it comes together in under 30 minutes (no meal prep needed!). You can be confident in hitting all of your macros as well as essential micronutrients as you dive into a forkful of fresh spinach, roasted sweet potato, seasoned beans, creamy avocado, spicy pico de gallo, and fluffy quinoa. Enjoy this salad bowl for lunch and avoid the afternoon slump, or dig in for dinner and feel awesome the next day.
Ingredients
Serves 2
Roasted Veggie Prep
1 large sweet potato
2 bell peppers
2 tsp olive oil or vegetable broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
few cracks black pepper
Easy Dairy-Free Queso
1 cup soaked cashews
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/3 cup water, plus more to thin as needed
3 cloves garlic (optional)
For the Bowl
4 cups spinach
1/4 cup cilantro
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup frozen fire-roasted corn
1/2 cup pico de gallo
1 avocado
1 lime
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Dice the sweet potato and bell pepper into 1” pieces. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread the pieces of sweet potato and bell pepper on the baking sheets not touching too much. Drizzle with oil or vegetable broth then season with salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Roast for 15-20 minutes until vegetables are fork-tender.
2. Meanwhile, make the queso. Add the soaked cashews, salsa, nutritional yeast, chili powder, salt, water, and garlic to a high-powered blender. Blend until smooth and creamy—about 2 minutes. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time to thin if needed.
3. Drain and rinse the pinto and kidney beans. Run the corn under hot water to thaw, then drain. Roughly chop the spinach. Pull the stems from the cilantro. Chop the cilantro leaves and mix them into the spinach. Divide the greens between serving bowls. Top each bowl with rice, pinto beans, and kidney beans. Sprinkle the beans with cumin and sea salt.
4. Remove the pit and slice the avocado. Slice the lime into wedges. Add the roasted sweet potato and bell pepper to each bowl. Top with corn, pico de gallo, sliced avocado, and a squeeze of lime. Generously drizzle the dairy-free queso over each bowl and dig in!
Note: If making this ahead for meal prep, keep the queso separate until ready to eat and slice the avocado just before serving.
This high-performance meal was created by Megan Sadd exclusively for Switch4Good. Megan Sadd is a Switch4Good team member, recipe developer, cookbook author, and blogger at Carrots and Flowers. If you’re a recipe developer, athlete, or just proud to be dairy-free, sign up to be a part of our growing team of go-getter individuals!
