Turn A Batch Of Roasted Sweet Potatoes Into A Saucy Meal With Ground Beef And Mexican Street Corn

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Making a flavorful dinner at the end of a long day is sometimes an unpleasant compromise between convenience and quality. But, with a little planning, you can make a delicious dish that, while it requires some cooking time, still comes together easily. One such option is a flavorful Mexican-influenced dish dubbed the Mexican street corn bowl. It consists of roasted sweet potatoes, taco-seasoned ground beef, and a topping of elote-style corn. Though each component involves varying levels of prep, the dish is extremely flexible, taking advantage of ingredients you may already have on hand.

What makes the dish distinct from simply hashing together leftover ground beef and sweet potatoes (a delicious melange on its own) are the spice choices and the addition of corn sauced and seasoned to evoke elote, or Mexican street corn. In elote's classic form, corn cobs are roasted and charred on an open grill. The cobs are then slathered in mayonnaise and crema or sour cream before being seasoned with Tajín or chili powder, cotija cheese, and lime. The beauty of this recipe is you don't need a grill to make street corn. There's a dish called esquites or elote en vaso (elote in a cup) that uses corn kernels rather than the whole cob, and it works perfectly for this dish. It's somewhat like an elote corn dip.

You can customize this dish in many ways. You could add avocado to the elote to boost the protein and flavors, or swap out ground beef taco meat for beef birria instead. You can even use diced chicken or roasted tofu if you prefer. Prep time can also be cut down by incorporating leftovers or frozen veggies.

The most involved part of this meal is prepping the individual components. First, peel and dice the sweet potatoes, seasoning with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika or chili seasoning. One large sweet potato works for about two servings. If you lightly coat the cubes in corn starch before seasoning, it helps crisp them up in the oven (about 30 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit) or air fryer (about 15 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit). You could even use mashed sweet potatoes as the base, though this changes the texture of the dish. Toward the end of the bake, toss ½ pound or more of ground beef in a pan. After it browns, add chili powder and smoked paprika, or your favorite taco seasoning packet. A ¼ cup of water makes a tasty simmer sauce.

When it comes to the corn, there's plenty of flexibility. You can roast whole corn cobs or slice the kernels off and boil them, or even pop frozen or canned corn in the microwave. A can of Del Monte Mexican-Style Street Corn brings roasted, savory goodness. For the sauce, you can replace sour cream or crema with non-fat Greek yogurt before topping with cotija cheese and squeezing on a little lime juice. Everything but the Elote, a Trader Joe's seasoning that should definitely be in your cupboard, is a perfect spice choice here. Blend the ingredients so the kernels are well-coated, but not swimming in the sauce. Then, it's a simple matter of stacking the ingredients. Start with the sweet potatoes, then the meat, and finally the corn. Top it with a dusting of Tajín and chopped cilantro for a nice flourish.