Twice baked??? And salsa?? Yes, please! I love twice baked potatoes. This was my first time trying twice baked sweet potatoes! But, I do love sweet potatoes. This turned out really good! The mango bean salsa added a great mix of flavors and textures to this dish. I highly recommend!
What do we need?? Obviously, a sweet potato (or more than one, depending on how many people you are cooking for). And a mango and black beans! You’ll also need some plant-based milk (I opted for almond milk, as always), a lime, and some scallions.
First, we bake the sweet potato. This will take about an hour in the oven at 425 degrees. Before you put the potato in the oven, you’ll want to poke some holes in it with a fork. I stabbed the crap outta my potato! I think I covered before how I love a good murder mystery. No mystery here! That potato was stabbed by Mrs. Forensic BBQ in the Kitchen with a Fork. (CLUE reference for those of you that don’t get it). While the potato is baking, we can make the salsa!
Peel and dice the mango. I used canned beans for this one because I had them on hand and didn’t soak any dry beans beforehand. Let’s delve into the difference between canned beans and dried beans for a minute.
To start, dried beans taste much fresher and have better taste and texture. They are also more nutritionally dense, containing more protein, fiber, iron, potassium and magnesium. They also contain less sodium. Dried beans are more time-consuming to use, as you have to soak them and simmer them until they soften. Dried beans are more cost-effective and create less environmental waste. Dried beans are a bit easier to digest (the cooking and soaking reduces phytic acid, which produces abdominal gas). Rinsing and draining your canned beans is ok too. This removes a lot of the sodium and eliminates some of the phytic acid. Plus, canned beans are easy and convenient. All-in-all, it’s a close race between the two! I tend to switch back and forth. Credit to cleanplates.com for this information!! They’ve got some great stuff on their website. Be sure to check it out!
Now that we are more bean-informed, lets make some salsa! Add the beans to the diced mango and juice the lime on the mixture. Add the scallions. Voila, you have a salsa!
Once your sweet potato is soft in the middle, pull it out of the oven and slice it in half. Scoop out the innards and mash them up in a bowl. Add plant-based milk until the mixture is fluffy. Spoon the mixture back into the halves of the sweet potato and put it back in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Once your potato is done cooking, top it with the salsa and enjoy this sweet dish!
