Kitchen Sink Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

This past Friday night, after a particularly hectic week, I found myself with nothing planned for dinner. I decided to use up some ingredients I had in the pantry, including my old standby, the sweet potato. What started out as a quickly thrown together meal ended up being really delicious, and something I'll definitely make again.

Sweet potatoes really are the perfect food: easy to make, versatile, hearty, and healthy, with the ideal balance of sweet and savory flavors. Their sticky-sweet nature holds up really well to Tex-Mex ingredients like salsa and cumin, and that's where I went with this dish.

Serves 4

4 sweet potatoes
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (optional)
1 to 3 tsp. cumin (more or less to taste - I like tons of cumin)
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (or 1 can)
1 can Rotell tomatoes and chilis, or  1 to 1 1/2 cups of mild salsa, or 1 cup of diced tomatoes
1 avocado, diced
Hot sauce (to taste)

1. Bake sweet potatoes, either in the oven or in the microwave. 
2. While potatoes are cooking, rinse quinoa and prepare according to package directions. Use vegetable broth instead of water for added flavor. 
3. Once quinoa is cooked, add cumin and stir for a minute. Add beans and Rotell (or salsa or diced tomatoes), and stir to combine. Stir over low heat until heated through.
4. Cut cooked sweet potatoes length-wise, without cutting bottom skin. Squeeze open and stuff with quinoa-rice mixture. 
5. Top each stuffed potato with 1/4 of the diced avocado and hot sauce to taste. 
6. Enjoy! 

This dish was a surprise hit with the fam and was even better heated up the following day for lunch.

Vegan Sweet Potato Chili

What's not to love about chili? It's great to make a double batch on Sunday and have it for lunch all week long - I never get tired of it. I also love sweet potatoes, so when I found this recipe on Shabbot's Habits, I was pretty excited. 


I followed the recipe above fairly closely, though I omitted the oil and opted to water saute the onions, peppers, and garlic instead. Since I doubled this I subbed one can of black beans with kidney beans and did it all on the stove top (Shabbot's recipe has a convenient slow cooker method). Oh, and I added some green bell pepper.  


Rather than serving with cheese and sour cream, I just topped each steaming bowl with some  chopped cilantro and crunchy scallions, and later in the week, when the scallions were gone, with some sweet white onion. I even mixed it with salad greens one day for a super-hearty "dressing" - you just can't go wrong with this dish. It would also be delicious over brown rice or on tortillas... OK, I'm getting carried away.


My husband and younger daughter love this - and you can spice it up with hot sauce (or add more cayenne during cooking) if you're so inclined. It's definitely my new favorite chili recipe. And, by replacing some of the beans in a typical vegan chili with sweet potato, you save a lot of calories. 

My doubled, eat-it-all-week version is below.


VEGAN SWEET POTATO CHILI
(Recipe adapted from Shabbot's Habits and Taste of Home)
6 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 large onions, chopped
1 or 2 bell peppers (any color), seeded and chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp chili powder
3 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne (more or less to taste)
3 15 oz cans black beans (or 4 1/2 cups cooked beans)
1 15 oz can kidney beans (or 1 1/2 cups cooked beans)
2 28 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup brewed coffee
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 Tsp salt (or more to taste)
In a large pot, water-saute onions and peppers until soft. Add garlic and cook for one minute. Add chili powder, cumin, and cayenne; mix well. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until potatoes are soft, about 2 hours. 


Serve with chopped cilantro, scallions, and/or sweet white onions.