This Sweet Potato Macro Bowl is one of my favorite meals to meal prep. It has the perfect balance of carbs, fat, and protein, and is packed with a ton of micronutrients. If you’re not a fan of sweet potato, feel free to sub it for any other starchy carb like purple potatoes, regular white potatoes, extra brown rice, unrefined pasta, etc.
Balanced Macro Bowl
Macro bowls don’t have any strict guidelines, but for the most part equate to a diverse bowl with balanced macros. To make sure your macro bowl is adequately balanced, you’ll need the following macronutrients:
- Carbs. In this meal, the main carb used is the sweet potato. I also added a small amount of brown rice and 3/4 cup chickpeas which are great sources of complex carbohydrates. If you’re a carb lover like me, check out the book The Starch Solution by Dr. John McDougall to learn how to be healthy and actually lose weight eating a lot of starchy carbs like rice and potatoes.
- Fat. The fat in this bowl comes from the tahini based dressing. If you don’t like tahini, swap it for cashew butter – it’s pretty equal in terms of it’s calories and fat content. 1 tbsp of tahini is 89 calories and 8g of fat while 1 tbsp of cashew butter is 94 calories and 8g of fat. I tend to lean towards tahini as cashews are a high FODMAP food and irritate those who suffer from IBS or SIBO. If you do have IBS or SIBO, you can absolutely have cashew butter, just don’t have it in large quantities or eat it every single day.
- Protein. The protein in this bowl comes from the chickpeas, sweet potato, tahini based dressing, and brown rice totaling in 17g of protein. Each person is completely different but on average women need around 46g of protein per day and men need 56g of protein per day.
Macro Bowl Measuring Devices
If you are following a recipe or making a macro bowl of your own, you’ll need proper measuring devices. Measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a kitchen scale are MUSTS. I don’t count calories or macros religiously, but macro bowls are all about balanced macronutrients so reliable measuring devices are super helpful. Here are the ones I own:
(Amazon)
(Amazon)
(Amazon)
{Related Recipes: If you like this recipe you’ll love my RAINBOW MACRO BOWL and my SWEET POTATO AVOCADO SALAD.
Sweet Potato Macro Bowl
Ingredients
Sweet Potato
- 1 sweet potato, sliced
- 1/2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Bowl
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 package hearts of palm pasta I bought the Trader Joe's version, can sub for any other type of noodle
- 3 cups spinach
- 3/4 cup shredded purple cabbage
- 1 watermelon radish, thinly sliced
Dressing
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 3 tbsp filtered water add more if mixture is too thick
- 1 tbsp fresh or dried cilantro
- 2 tsp umami powder
Instructions
- preheat oven or air fryer to 400 degrees. wash your sweet potato and cut into circular shapes or cubes if you prefer. add to a bowl and toss with the avocado oil, paprika, garlic, and sea salt. bake for 40 min flipping once halfway through.
- mix all dressing ingredients in a dish. if the mixture is too thick, add a touch more water. if it's too thin for your liking, add another tsp of tahini.
- cook the brown rice, drain and rinse the chickpeas and hearts of palm pasta, shred the purple cabbage, and thinly slice the watermelon radish
- evenly arrange ingredients into 2 bowls and serve with the dressing or put in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
