Meet one of my favorite combos: sweet potatoes + feta. In this recipe, they're the perfect hearty, tangy topping for grains, greens, and nuts.
This easy bowl is what I make for dinner most often when no one is looking. It’s my go-to meal when I’m not working on new recipes, when I’m tired after a long day, and when I’ve definitely had too much take-out pho for one week. It’s not a 30-minute meal because roasting a sweet potato takes at least that long, but the rest is so darn simple. Plus, nothing actually calms me more than the wafting aroma of sweet potatoes roasting in my kitchen.
There’s no fancy sauce in this recipe. You won’t even dirty an extra bowl to mix together a separate dressing. Simply toss the roasted sweet potatoes with quinoa, a bit of feta cheese, and whatever greens, herbs, and nuts you might have around. Dress it simply with a drizzle of olive oil, squeezes of lemon, and a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Serve it in bowls and get cozy! This combination may be simple, but honestly, it’s one of my favorites.
Recipe Variations
I’ve made a thousand different variations of this recipe over the years. Here are some of my favorites:
- Roast your chickpeas along with the sweet potato for extra crunch.
- Use any toasted nut or seed—or a mix—in place of the almonds. I highly recommend pepitas or walnuts.
- Try millet or farro in place of the quinoa.
- Add a handful of dried cranberries or dried tart cherries for sweetness.
- Toss in a few tablespoons of minced herbs—think thyme, parsley, or sage.
- Use roasted butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes, a mix of roasted root vegetables, or something totally different, like roasted broccoli, roasted cauliflower, or roasted Brussels sprouts!
- Make a vegan bowl by swapping the feta for vegan Parmesan or dollops of pesto.
- Make a Southwestern bowl by replacing the chickpeas with black beans and the lemon juice with lime juice. Finish it with a drizzle of smoky chipotle sauce!
Let me know what variations you try!
More Favorite Bowl Recipes
If you love this recipe, try one of these healthy grain bowls next:
- Bibimbap
- Best Buddha Bowl
- Mango Ginger Rice Bowl
- Tamago Kake Gohan
- Adzuki Bean Bowls
- Roasted Veggie Grain Bowl
Simple Sweet Potato Bowl
- 1 medium sweet potato, cubed*
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- ½ cup cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 2 scallions, finely chopped
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red cabbage
- ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
- ¼ cup almonds, toasted and chopped
- 2 cups baby salad greens
- Juice of ½ lemon, more to taste
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the sweet potatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Roast until golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes.
- Toss the roasted sweet potatoes with the chickpeas, quinoa, scallions, cabbage, feta, almonds, and salad greens. Drizzle with olive oil, the lemon juice, and a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Add more lemon juice and season to taste. Toss and serve in bowls.
*If you like, add some spice to your sweet potatoes. Toss them with chili powder or a combination of cumin and coriander before you roast them.
This recipe was so delicious!!! My family & I loved it. Thank you so much for sharing!
I made these bowls. Delicious. The family loved them. This is a great recipe for mid-week. I agree the sweet potato is not quick to cook but I could do other things while I was waiting for it to cook so it wasn’t a problem. This recipe will be a regular one in our home from now on.
Hi Sophia, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! xo
This was amazing!!! Thank you so much!! I scrapped the red cabbage and did baby kale instead of baby salad greens. So amazing.
Yay, I’m so glad you enjoyed this one!
We wanted to add a lot more vegetarian dishes and thought we’d give this a try. We love it and so does our 2 year old son. Extra props because it’s really easy. I’d would definitely recommend.
Thanks Dan! I’m so happy to hear it was a family favorite 🙂
I loved this. A few changes I made: I used arugala instead of the greens. It adds so much flavor. I used extra scallions which was a good idea since the dish does need a little extra seasoning. I also used cinnamon and cumin on my potatoes which was necessary to add flavor. And I didn’t do this but I think it would be delicious to cook the sweet potatoes in coconut oil rather than OO. Lastly, we don’t like Feta so I used parmesan and it worked well. Thanks for this delicious and fresh recipe! The combinations of the ingredients made it delicious!
Hi Kristina, I’m so glad you enjoyed customizing these!
This quinoa bowl looks so good. I like the simplicity of it. I can’t wait to try it. I will be interested to see how much flavor it has. I like the idea of the lemon juice in it.
This recipe is awesome.
Thank you for sharing this, it’s just what I need right now! I don’t have much time for cooking and to be honest, I’m not very good at it. I too often end up with takeaway pizza or ready-made, frozen meals. I started looking for healthy recipes that would also be easy and not very time-consuming and I stumbled upon your blog. I’ve started pinning already, thank you!
Yum! Delicious and so simple. I just made a bucket load of this recipe to feed my husband and me for the next day or so. I had no red cabbage so instead I used a red onion, chopped and left in cold water for about 10 minutes to crisp up. I also added some fresh ginger and a red chilli. I roasted the sweet potato with ground cumin and a few slices of fresh garlic. I didn’t have almonds so I threw in some pine nuts instead. I can see this is going to be one of our “go-to” recipes. I love that it gives me a good base idea and it’s easy to play around with extra ingredients.
thanks
Do you use canned chick peas? I have never cooked raw chick peas
Yes, I usually use canned (they take so long to cook otherwise 🙂
using the recipe as you originally posted, could you provide the amount of calories per serving please?
I make quinoa bowl with raw pumpkin seeds, cilantro, green onions, tomatoes and a lime/olive oil vinaigrette, add roasted maple sweet potato chunks, feta and 1/2 avocado….best meal ever! Satisfying and filling, not to mention easy 👍
So I just finished making the recipe! Just a random question: do you serve it hot of cold?
Hi there! I enjoy one bowl meal! This recipe sounds good and I would like to have a try on it soon! Moreover, this recipe looks simple and easy to prepare and cook. Thanks for sharing this great thing!
This sounds amazing; definitely trying.
This is the sort of bowl I most often crave too. I especially like the addition of red cabbage and scallions in your bowl.
I also use black beans and onions in mine. Spinach is good too. I also love Quinoa bowls. I have just started to like Sweet Potatoes after all these years.
Feta does sound really good. I’ve been on a sweet potato kick, so I’ll need to pick some up soon. We eat a lot of grains with roasted veg around here too.
I love one bowl dinners. What a wonderful idea to use feta with sweet potato. I am off to the store to pick some up and try!
This looks lovely and clean and simple- perfect for the week before Thanksgiving.
That looks so good I love quinoa bowls adding sweet potato would make them even better
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