These spicy and sweet potato beans are my current brothy bean fixation, and that’s saying something, because I have a lot of brothy bean fixations. But these are just so unique and so good. They are incredibly easy to make, and using canned beans means you can whip these up in no time. The sweetness from an easy sweet potato “broth” (see the blog post below for more details) plays so perfectly with the spiciness of the chili in the beans, and the salty hit from the kalamata olives. If you’re an olive person, or a spice person, or even just a bean queen, these simple sweet potato beans have something going on for you.
Table of contents
Ingredients for these sweet potato beans
- 2-3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, grated
- 1 & 1/2 tbsp calabrian chili paste
- 2/3 cup kalamata olives, finely chopped
- 1 15 oz. can of Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
- 2/3 cup 5 oz. cooked sweet potato, no skin
- 2 cups water, plus more as needed
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 3 cups spinach
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh oregano for serving
- 1 oz. freshly grated parmesan, for serving
How to prepare these spicy and sweet potato beans
Get ready for a one pot wonder (which is why I love it!) Here is a step-by-step for making these brothy beans:
- Put a high-sided sauté pan on medium heat. Add the olive oil and let it come to temperature. Then add the yellow onion. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4-5 minutes, or until the onion starts to become soft and transluscent. Season with salt.
- Add in the garlic and chili paste and stir. Cook for another 2 minutes to let the garlic cook down. Add in the kalamata olives and stir, cooking another minute.
- Pour in the beans and stir to combine.
- In a small blender, blend the cooked sweet potato and 2 cups of water to make a sweet potato “broth.” Pour this over the beans and swirl to combine everything. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Let this simmer for 5-7 minutes, letting the ingredients combine and the flavors build. Taste at the end of the simmering time, and add a squeeze of lemon if you’re feeling it.
- Lastly, toss in the spinach and give it a stir. It will wilt into the beans in seconds.
- Remove the beans from the heat and serve with a sprinkle of fresh oregano and freshly grated parmesan. Serve warm with rice or crusty bread!
What is sweet potato “broth”?
To put it simply, it’s just a purée with cooked sweet potato, and a loooot of water. This recipe was actually created because I had a leftover sweet potato around, but I wanted beans. I thought to myself “could this potato help make these creamy?” and it DEF could. And in doing so it also proved that it was an amazing flavor builder for such a humble recipe.
Try sweet potato broth in place of your vegetable stock, it just just might change your POV on what potatoes can do (but honestly…can’t they do everything?)
Looking for similar recipes?
Here are more beans from the blog! Let’s make a pact to eat beans every day, yes?
And that’s everything for these sweet potato beans!
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3
Sweet Potato Beans
Equipment
- 1 large sauté pan or stock pot
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion sliced
- 4 cloves garlic grated
- 1 & 1/2 tbsp calabrian chili paste
- 2/3 cup kalamata olives finely chopped
- 1 15 oz. can of Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
- 2/3 cup 5 oz. cooked sweet potato, no skin
- 2 cups water plus more as needed
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 3 cups spinach
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh oregano for serving
- 1 oz. freshly grated parmesan for serving
Instructions
- Put a high-sided sauté pan on medium heat. Add the olive oil and let it come to temperature. Then add the yellow onion. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4-5 minutes, or until the onion starts to become soft and transluscent. Season with salt.
- Add in the garlic and chili paste and stir. Cook for another 2 minutes to let the garlic cook down. Add in the kalamata olives and stir, cooking another minute.
- Pour in the beans and stir to combine.
- In a small blender, blend the cooked sweet potato and 2 cups of water to make a sweet potato “broth.” Pour this over the beans and swirl to combine everything. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Let this simmer for 5-7 minutes, letting the ingredients combine and the flavors build. Taste at the end of the simmering time, and add a squeeze of lemon if you’re feeling it.
- Lastly, toss in the spinach and give it a stir. It will wilt into the beans in seconds.
- Remove the beans from the heat and serve with a sprinkle of fresh oregano and freshly grated parmesan. Serve warm with rice or crusty bread!
Hi Justine…I live in New Zealand and haven’t found, (amongst a lot of things,lol) any Calabrian chilli paste (yet!) But i have found Callipo Nduja. Not exactly the same thing as it’s made with pork, but it IS delicious! I’m assuming it would be a suitable substitute for the Calabrian chilli paste, or would Sriracha be better?
Love all your recipes, btw!!!! 🤩
Hello! I’m not familiar with that ingredient but in the States Nduja means a type of meat – is this a meat paste? As long as it has a bit of kick, it should work as a good replacement!
I’m waiting for my chili to cook up in my new French Dutch oven while doing the Insta scroll. I always pause on yours and rewatch. The sweet potato/kalamata/bean dish just got me. I finally subscribed!
Made this for dinner tonight and absolutely loved it. This with some pan-toasted bread from the local bakery *chefs kiss*. The sweetness of the sweet potatoes really rounds everything out! If you don’t have baked sweet potatoes on hand, just stab a sweet potato with a fork a few times, wrap it in a damp paper towel, and microwave for 5-7 min. Same vibe since you’re just blending it! Also, I didn’t have Calabrian chili on hand so I subbed harissa and she worked great. Never thought I’d be eating a bowl of beans for dinner, yet here I am (and happy about it). Thanks bean queen for another good one for veggies and omnis alike 🙂
This was a really delicious quick weeknight meal. It all came together in about 20-30 minutes and was filling and hearty – just what I wanted on a cold winter night!
I added in a generous scoop of miso paste because I found there was a bit of depth missing, but that might have been because I wasn’t able to source Calabrian chili paste from my local grocery store so I used a spicy chili paste I had on hand.
This was a great dish and I’ve shared it with my friends and colleagues to encourage them to make it too!
Hi Justine
Just enjoying a bowl of sweet potato beans and thought I best let you and your audience know that they are deeeelicious! It’s creamy, spicy, lemony, unique, healthy… so so good.
I happened to have some leftover roasted potato and red pepper soup kicking around in the fridge which I used in place of the sweet potato and water in your recipe and I used a store bought Asian chili and garlic sauce I also had on hand. Otherwise, I followed your recipe.
I taste tested before adding the lemon juice and after and the lemon juice sealed the deal for me. Took the beans to another level. Great recipe- thank you!
In Justine we trust! The olives got me, but you’ve changed my mind of eggplant and tofu so I went for it. This did not disappoint. So tasty!
Unfortunately I hate olives so I added a bit of apple cider vinegar during different parts of the cooking stage to try to replicate that acid. These beans were amazing and hearty and warm and tasty and were even better as leftovers!! I’m sharing this recipe with my mom since I grew up eating beans on toast for dinner! This really gave me a sweet hint of nostalgia.
I dislike olives too, how much apple cider vinegar did you add?
This is soo good! Thank you for sharing – will make again!
I’m so happy you liked them!! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
Delicious! I saw these on TikTok and had to try them.
I used gochujang instead of chili paste and it was perfect. The only thing I didn’t care for was the olives but I’m sure I’ll have fun experimenting with substitutions, because I will definitely make these again.
If you find another sub you like, please report back! I love Kalamata olives but I know they aren’t for everyone 🙂
Absolutely love this recipe! Thank you! 😍😍😍
I’m so thrilled you like it!
Please add Grams and milliliters to your recepis. We, Europeans need it! Hahaha as I calculated now, 150 grams of sweet potato and 1 can of beans goes into this recepy for 4 people? That is quite little no?
Made these and wow there’s lots of bold, salty, spicy flavors going on. Can’t taste the beans, but I think that’s the object. I used harissa instead of calabrian chillie paste. I think for an even creamier texture, one could use canned coconut milk when blending with the sweet potato. Def don’t skimp on a squeeze of lemon at the end. That acid gives it life!
ok. this was one of the best tasting things i’ve ever devoured! I am a bean lover (and somewhat of a bean whisperer myself) but this was truly over the top delicious! I didn’t have Calabrian chili paste so I used pureed chipotles in adobo with a shot of ketchup (don’t judge) and kale instead of spinach. The olives were a touch of genius and the sweet potato broth had me swooning 🙂 The only objection I have is that this was only two servings, definitely not 4, but maybe because it was so yummy and I am a very hungry ultra runner 🙂
These are so amazing! Unique, but definitely comfort food. Beans were already my favourite food but now I love them even more!