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Sweet Potato and Lardon Tacos

November 30, 2017 by Joy the Baker 13 Comments

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There’s not much I won’t put in a tortilla. 

This comes with plenty of early training.  I think I came home from fourth grade and everyday made a peanut butter and jelly ‘sandwich’ in a cold flour tortilla.  It took me a few months to navigate how to keep the precious filling from slipping out the end after biting through the tightly rolled peanut butter burrito.  It took me another few weeks to figure out that tortillas don’t work well in a toaster, but do fair well over the flame of the stove burner.  

But, we’re here to talk about other tortilla things now that I’ve mastered what to put in a tortilla and how to get it in my face. 

Sweet potato and bacon tacos.  They could be dinner, they could be lunch, maybe add some scrambled eggs and call them breakfast. These are deeply versatile, thus very exciting! 

There are two small challenges to this very simple dish.  

The first is dicing the sweet potatoes into relatively uniform small cubes.  Sweet potatoes are notoriously wonky in shape so the cubes can be daunting but I’m sure that our best efforts will work out just fine. 

The second is lardon.  Do you know what lardons are?  They’re slab bacon, or unsliced pork belly sliced into thick batons, creating pieces of both fat and meat that cook up to crispy little bacon nuggets.  

We’ll also need:

•  grated jack cheese

•  green onions and pickled jalapenos

•  whole cumin seeds + salt, pepper and olive oil

We’ll start by roasting the sweet potatoes.  I use a nonstick rimmed baking sheet but you can also line a baking sheet with parchment paper to keep the potatoes from sticking.  

To the sweet potatoes we’ll add olive oil.  Ghee would also be delicious!

Salt and pepper, as you might expec-t and the potatoes go in the oven for an initial bake to soften and brown.  

While the potatoes roast, we’ll cook the lardons on a stovetop in a skillet.  As the fat crisps, they’ll render off some of their fat.  Once the fat has cooled just slightly, I toss in some whole cumin seeds and add them to the roasting potatoes for some extra flavor.  

We’ll line the toasted tortillas with jack cheese and add the roasted cumin potatoes.  Yup.  

Crisp and cooled lardons, too! 

Green onions, sliced and fresh.  Pickled japalenos, spicy and right. 

These are so versatile, dress them up or down as you see fit.  

You might consider: 

•  adding goat cheese instead of jack cheese

•  swapping bacon for something not so meaty like tofu or quinoa

•  adding grilled onions

•  adding scrambled eggs and sour cream

• And!  If you don’t have pork belly to make extra thick lardons, go for thick slab bacon and cut them into the tall cube shape and carry on carry on.  

Ok that’s all for now.  I adore you. Taco well. 

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Sweet Potato and Lardon Tacos

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  • Author: Joy the Baker
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
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Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/2 to 3/4 pound pork belly sliced into 1/2-inch thick batons (alternately you could use thick slab bacon cut into batons)
  • 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
  • heaping 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 8 corn tortillas

For Topping

  • jack cheese
  • diced green onions
  • pickled jalapenos
  • fresh cilantro

Instructions

  1. Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. We’ll work with the pork belly first, slice the pork belly (or thick slab bacon if you’re using that) into 1/2-inch batons. That means, if the pork belly is layed out horizontally in front of you, you’ll slice into it vertically creating bits that contain both fat and meat. Place the batons into the hot skillet and cook until bubbling, golden brown on all sides, and cooked through – about 5 minutes for slab bacon and 7 minutes for pork belly.
  3. Remove from heat and place in a paper towel lined bowl. Spoon about two tablespoons of the pork fat into a small bowl and stir cumin seeds into the pork fat. Discard the rest of the fat.
  4. Peel sweet potatoes, dice each potato as evenly as you can into 1/2-inch cubes. You want the potato pieces to be as uniform as possible so they cook evenly, but most sweet potatoes are a wonky shape so just do your best.
  5. Place the cubed sweet potatoes on a nonstick rimmed baking sheet. Add olive oil, add reserved bacon fat, sprinkle with salt and pepper – toss to coat. Place in the oven to bake until softened, about 20 minutes, tossing once or twice during baking. Remove from the oven once cooked through and golden.
  6. Toast each of the eight tortillas over the flame of a until charred lightly on each side. If you don’t have a flame on your stove, you can cook the tortillas in bit of hot oil in a skillet.
  7. Add a sprinkling of jack cheese, a spoonful of roasted sweet potatoes, and a few lardon pieces into each tortilla. Top with green onions, pickled jalapeƱos, and fresh cilantro leaves. Enjoy warm!


Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 4

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Reader Interactions

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Questions
  1. Tracy

    December 6, 2017 at 3:15 pm

    What kind of tortillas do you use? I always think your tortillas look so yummy when you post taco recipes!

    Reply
  2. Chop4naija

    December 5, 2017 at 8:27 am

    Wow this is so colorful and my mouth is already watery! Can’t wait to try this at home.

    Reply
  3. Chop4naija

    December 5, 2017 at 7:23 am

    Wow what a yummy recipe! i can’t wait to try this out asap.

    Reply
  4. April

    December 5, 2017 at 3:59 am

    Made these for dinner tonight. My daughter said, “on paper-this didn’t sound too good but can I have for lunch tomorrow too?”
    I’m guessing she liked it as much as me.

    Reply
  5. Mary

    December 2, 2017 at 2:02 pm

    What a wonderful quick meal at the end of hot day. Life saver!!!
    And not have to face yet more salad leaves – personally not a lover of leaves but love all else salad. So a big Thankyou for this idea.

    Reply
  6. Dee

    November 30, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    This could also be vegetarian! I love how simple and fresh this recipe is!

    Reply
  7. Erica Lea | Buttered Side Up

    November 30, 2017 at 11:26 am

    Well, aren’t those pretty little tacos! I cooked with port belly for the first time a few weeks ago, but that was for tonkotsu ramen. Sounds like it’d be amazing in tacos as well!

    Reply
  8. Tori//Gringalicious.com

    November 30, 2017 at 10:34 am

    Holy yumness, these look divine! Thank you so much, Joy! You’re the best!

    Reply
  9. Danica

    November 30, 2017 at 9:54 am

    what’s the difference between fat back and pork belly? there’s an old piece of fat back in back of the freezer… will it work too?

    Reply
  10. Rosemarie

    November 30, 2017 at 9:24 am

    Your sweet potato, black bean tacos are on rotation in my house. We LOVE them!! But…my kids love bacon so we will have to try these for sure! They’d probably make awesome quesadillas as well :) (kids like quesadillas)

    Reply
  11. Alexis deZayas

    November 30, 2017 at 6:36 am

    You had me at sweet potato! I absolutely need these in my life :)

    Reply
  12. Ashlyn @ The Pedantic Foodie

    November 30, 2017 at 4:29 am

    What a fun, unexpected twist on a taco! I love this idea so much!!

    Reply
  13. Rena

    November 30, 2017 at 3:30 am

    Normally I’m not a fan of sweet potatoe but this looks so yummy and convincing that I must try it out :)
    xx from Bavaria/Germany, Rena
    http://www.dressedwithsoul.com

    Reply

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