I’ve been on this hummus salad bowl kick for nearly three years now. It all started when I fell in love with the restaurant CAVA and became absolutely obsessed with their build-your-own-bowl including hummus, greens, lentils, etc.

I didn’t realize how obsessed I was with CAVA until I moved to a state that doesn’t have a single CAVA and I began craving one of those bowls. I’ve tried making so many variations of this bowl, and the chicken + sweet potato one is definitely one of my favorites. It’s so simple and so delicious.

Hummus. Roasted sweet potatoes. Roasted onions. Pan-seared chicken breast. Fresh spinach. Actually though, what more could I want in one bowl? Well, maybe falafel… but we’ll save that for another day :)

If I haven’t sold you yet, let’s just take a second to talk about how easy it is to make one of these bowls. We can really break it down into three easy steps: 1) chop and roast your sweet potatoes, 2) cook the chicken, and 3) make the hummus.

If my Easy Hummus recipe is too much of a time commitment for you (it’s okay, I’ve been there too), you can totally add store-bought hummus and this hummus bowl will still be super yummy. If you’re looking for extra veggies to add in, I’d recommend cucumbers or tomatoes. Feel free to add in whatever sounds yummy to you, though!

WHAT YOU’LL LOVE ABOUT THIS RECIPE

♡ Hummus INSTEAD of salad dressing! Forget all those oily dressings with so many preservatives and try out this FRESHLY made hummus that adds incredible flavor.

♡ All the fresh GREENS (and by greens I mean so much delicious, fresh spinach)

♡ QUICK & EASY recipe

♡ High PROTEIN content: garbanzo beans & chicken!

♡ A filling dish! Usually salads don’t count as a meal, but this one definitely does. I love that I can eat a bowl of this and feel completely full.

TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST SWEET POTATO HUMMUS BOWL

1) Be sure to cook the sweet potatoes all the way! There’s not a hard fast rule for how long this is, but the rule of thumb to know when the sweet potatoes are done is how easily you can poke them with a fork. If you’re still not sure, take one out of the oven, let it cool, and then taste it too see if it’s soft or not.

2) Don’t burn the onions :) It can be tricky to get the timing right on this, because the onions do sometimes get done before the sweet potatoes, but they cook on the same pan! If you check the sweet potatoes and they’re not quite done but the onions are getting crispy, you may want to take the onions off the pan and then keep cooking the sweet potatoes until they’re soft.

3) Make sure the hummus is super creamy! Creamy hummus just elevates this dish. I’m sure there are people who prefer their hummus chunky, but blending the hummus longer will not just make it creamier, but also more fluffy (for lack of a better word to describe it…). It’s delicious.

SERVING IDEAS

Add EXTRA VEGGIES! You can keep the salad simple, with just the ingredients I’ve outlined… OR you can add in some extra veggies (and nutrients)! My top two recommendations for added veggies are cucumbers and tomatoes.

Add LENTILS! If you’re looking to make this a vegan salad, you absolutely need to try it with RED LENTILS! It’s sooooo yummy and you still get a lot of protein!

Add FLAX SEED or ground flax seed! If you love seeds (like I do), you definitely should try sprinkling a little bit of ground flaxseed over the salad. Don’t go overboard with this because you can add too much! I’d recommend maybe a ½ teaspoon of ground flax seed, just to see if that’s even something that you like. There are a lot of health benefits in ground flax seed, including healthy fats and fiber.

STORAGE

The number 1 storage tip of this recipe is to store each component in DIFFERENT containers! If you mix up the salad all together and put it all in one bowl in the fridge, the salad will get kind of soggy and won’t taste as good.

Each component will store for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I think the sweet potatoes taste best warm, but everything else can be cold when you mix it all together into a second-day salad leftover bowl!

INGREDIENTS

- Chicken Breast: An excellent source of LEAN protein! Chicken breast is the healthiest cut of chicken you can buy because it’s lowest in fat and calories.

- Sweet Potato: I personally LOVE to eat the skin on sweet potatoes, but you can also peel your sweet potato if you’d rather not. Once you’ve either washed the skin or peeled it off, you can cube and roast the sweet potato chunks.

Note: If you’re not sure whether or not you want to peel the sweet potato before you eat it, you may want to consider the health benefits of sweet potato skin. Research has shown that many of the nutrients and antioxidants found in sweet potatoes are actually concentrated in the skin and just below it. As a result, if you always peel your sweet potatoes, you may miss out on many of the health benefits these awesome orange potatoes provide! Additionally, sweet potato skin is an excellent source of fiber.

- Onion: Delicious roasted and sprinkled with cumin… adds so much flavor to this dish!

- Cumin: That added Middle Eastern touch that we’re looking for here. It provides a warm, earthy flavor that can be bitter on its own but is delicious when combined with other foods. This incredible spice fits into so many dishes and is excellent in this one.

- Garlic: We love it for the heart health benefits AND the flavor benefits it adds to pretty much every meal!

- Olive Oil: Rich in monounsaturated fats (healthy fats) and antioxidents. Be sure to use extra virgin olive oil to maximize these health benefits.

- Salt

- Garbanzo Beans: The essence of hummus is garbanzo beans (also known as chickpeas). This hummus recipe uses canned garbanzo beans because it is simply so easy to open up a can, drain off the liquid, and dump the beans into a blender. Hummus also has many practical health benefits including high fiber content, protein, iron, phosphorus, and folic acid.

- Tahini: You may or may not have used tahini before in your cooking, but this ingredient is absolutely essential to get the true hummus flavor. Tahini is ground, toasted sesame seeds that make a bitter and oily paste. In other words, tahini doesn’t taste awesome on its own… but when paired with other things, it truly elevates the dish. What’s more, nothing pairs with tahini quite like garbanzo beans.

- Water: Necessary to thin the hummus and make it blendable. You can add more hummus if you want your hummus to be more like a dressing than a hummus. I prefer thick because it adds more flavor to my salad bowl!

- Spinach: Healthline calls it “one of the most nutritious foods on earth.”

HOW TO…

You’ll want to start by preparing the sweet potatoes and onions to be roasted. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Wash the sweet potato well, ensuring that it is free from dirt. Cut off any spots of the skin that don’t look super appetizing (black spots, bruises, cuts, etc.). Cube the sweet potato.

Peel the onion and slice it into thin, half-moon slices. Arrange the sliced onions and cubed sweet potatoes onto a cookie sheet.

Sprinkle the onions and sweet potatoes with olive oil. Mix the potatoes and onions around with your hands to ensure they get evenly coated in the oil. Once they're evenly coated, sprinkle on garlic powder, cumin, and salt.

Once the sweet potatoes and onions are evenly coated in the oil and spices, place the cookie sheet into the preheated oven and set a timer for 20 minutes. Check the potatoes after 20 minutes to see if they're soft and can be easily penetrated with a fork. If they're not soft, set the timer for another 5-10 minutes and cook until soft.

While the sweet potatoes and onions are roasting in the oven, begin preparing the chicken. Slice the chicken breast in half and season both sides of each half with salt. Place into a hot skillet with olive oil.

Cook the chicken, flipping it occasionally. You want both sides of each half to get a nice, even sear. Cook the chicken until it has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees F (in the thickest part of the chicken breast). Allow the chicken to rest and cool a bit.

Once the chicken has rested for 5-7 minutes, slice it into even, bite-sized pieces.

The last component that needs to be prepared is the hummus. I highly recommend checking out my recipe for Easy Hummus. I've included basic instructions for this recipe here, but you can learn much more about this recipe by visiting this page on our website!

Pour the DRAINED garbanzo beans into a blender.

Add in the tahini, salt, garlic powder, and water. Blend all ingredients on high for 1-2 minutes, or until the hummus is super smooth and creamy.

The last step is to compile each component of your hummus bowl into one AWESOME hummus salad bowl! I like to just take what I'm going to eat that night and add it to my personal bowl to mix up. You can mix this all up into one big 4-person salad bowl, but I've found that the leftovers get soggy this way.

Add spinach to a bowl. I like to buy pre-washed spinach so I don't have to worry about washing it!

Add roasted sweet potatoes and onions to the bowl. If you're making a big, 4-person salad, you can add all the roasted sweet potatoes and onions. If you're just making a personal salad bowl, add in what you think you'll want to eat in one salad!

Add sliced chicken to salad.

Spoon in an appropriate amount of hummus to your salad bowl. If I'm making my own personal hummus salad bowl, I usually add in 1 1/2 heaping spoonfuls of hummus!

Sprinkle on a tiny bit of cumin over the top of your salad. Mix up the ingredients until the hummus is coating the spinach fairly evenly. ENJOY!!

Ingredients:

Directions: