Extra healthy, delicious and different. Warms up a winter kitchen, fills a hungry tummy.
Here’s the victim; scrubbed, stabbed, smeared, and salted, ready to go into the oven.
One big sweet potato was all we needed for the two of us. Preheat the oven to 425°. Put a tray (or just a piece of aluminum foil) on the bottom rack of the oven to catch those pesky sweet potato juices (keeps the oven clean). Pierce the potato a couple of times with a knife. Then smear the skin with soft butter and salt it well (we get organic potatoes so we can eat the skin!). Put the potato in the oven to roast for 1¼ hrs, until it’s easily pierced with fork.
While it’s baking (and making your kitchen warm and fragrant and homey smelling), chop 1/2 c. fresh cilantro (and/or basil) and about 1/3 c. salted peanuts.
You will need to have these two items in the house also . . . Chili Puree with Garlic, and Soy Sauce.
When the potato is tender and almost carmelized, pull it from the oven; cut it in half, and fluff it up with a fork. (You might want to put on your sunglasses for these next photos, but remember, the brighter color of the vegetable, the more good beta carotene that lurks within!)
Yeow! This is an extreeeemly healthy potato! Split one Tbsp. of Chili Puree with Garlic between the two halves.
Split the 1/2 tsp. of soy sauce between the two halves as well, and carefully mix the sauces into the mashed potato.
Sprinkle over the chopped nuts.
Top them with the cilantro (and/or basil). Roughly chop about 3/4 c. fresh cold bean sprouts and divide them between the two halves, squeeze over the juice of one lime, and serve . . . This may look a little odd, but trust me, it’s delicious and makes you feel really good about your non-butter-eating-for-once self. 🙂 Every bite should include a bit of the skin for extra goodness.
And to keep the color/health thing going, we had it with this. Roasted chicken salad with apples and steamed beets, chopped red onion and cherry tomatoes. And we bravely had it with no dressing, because there was so much flavor, we figured we could get away with it, and we did!
So here is the recipe, all in one place, for: STUFFED SWEET POTATO
- 1 lg. sweet dark orange sweet potato
- softened butter and salt
- 1 Tbsp. Chili Puree with Garlic (get it at the supermarket)
- 1/2 tsp. soy sauce
- 1/3 c. chopped salted nuts
- 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro or basil or both
- 3/4 c. roughly chopped bean sprouts
- juice of one lime
Preheat oven to 400° and put a tray on the bottom rack of the oven to catch juices from the potato. Pierce the potato several times with a knife. Smear butter all over the skin and salt it well. Bake 1 hour 15 min. While it’s baking, chop the nuts, herbs, and bean sprouts. When a fork easily pierces the roasted potato, pull it out of the oven, cut it in half, and fluff it up with a fork. Split all the rest of the ingredients between the two halves; drizzle over the chili puree and the soy sauce and gently mix them into the potato. Sprinkle on the nuts, herbs and sprouts, squeeze over the lime juice, and serve! ♥
YUM! I have to try that……what took me so long to find this section of your website!! Will let you know how it goes……lol.
I read about this A~may~zing way to cook a sweet potato in one of your blog posts. All I can say is if you love baked jacket potatoes and you love sweet potatoes you have *got* to try this. I have them (plain, forked up with butter and maybe some grainy mustard or stuffed with cheese, or any number of ways) twice a week now. Stuffed full of all kinds of goodness, I much prefer them to a regular potato these days. You have started a vegetable revolution in my kitchen Susan . . Huge Smile! Huge Thanks!
Better for you too, and so yummy!
Yum! Can’t wait to try this tonight. Thank you!
This sounds dee-licious. I now have chile puree and soy sauce on my market list. PS – For almost 40 years my mother read “Prevention” magazine [long before the 70s when nutrition began being noticed]. She educated her six kids big time on the importance of healthy eating & she was always talking about “the Rodale dial” which was Prevention’s chart of the healthfulness of our foods. The closer the item was to the center of the dial, the healthier it was. SWEET POTATOES are smack in the middle! According to “Prevention,” nearly the perfect food!
That’s what I’ve always heard. SO good for you! Nice to have something that’s so good for you also taste wonderful!
Susan loved the picture of you with the lion cubs. You immediately reminded me of Sally Field.
Going to try this for my husband. Thanks so much- looks amazing!
Healthy!
Yummy sounding recipes!
Thanks for sharing!
I’m on the same page as you with all those delicious, healthy veggies! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the recipes, also the Valentine cards were so cute ! Are they old or new and made to look old?
I found them in an antique store, they’re signed by children. Aren’t they sweet?
thank you so much for these healthy recipes and ideas! I too MUST get off sugar. You are my inspiration! Be glad you didn’t wait until you’re my age to start taking care of your health and eating habits. I’m 73 – still young – and want to be healthy in my old age. Just not enough discipline. But I promise to do better!!! I’ve never tried steel cut oatmeal but looking forward to my first bowl.
Read the next post, there’s more! And it’s even better! xoxo
All of this recipe is on my shopping list with directions. I don’t have my printer with me while traveling, but I want to try this. Last week I did have one sweet potato for dinner, but it was smothered in butter.
I still enjoy sweet potatoes with lime juice and chile garlic sauce. I believe it was your recipe. And it was the beginning of a lasting relationship with chile garlic sauce.
I started a healthy diet with no sugars, gluten free, etc, but fell off the wagon during the Holidays. Your recipes look so appetizing, you have inspired me to renew my commitment for my health’s sake. (the gradual slowing of the body, and sluggish mind is crying out for help)
I have never used chili puree, but now have it on my grocery list as well. Thanks so much for reminding us how important it is.
You’ll love this! Also, Trader Joe’s makes a kind of salt … delicious chili lime salt, you can shake onto things (like avocado or sweet potato) for extra flavor.
Please, oh please, dear Susan would you write down how you have been so successful with this weight loss. What did you write for your sister? I think of you so often as I try to eat more healthfully and admire your smart eating — I want to never be hungry! I’ll love you forever (like I don’t anyway!).
Great blog! Lovely garden. Wish I could water more than a few hours twice a week, San Joaquin Valley. Our spring was lovely with all the rain. We had beautiful flowers for a short while. I too garden with the attitude of “if it grows, it stays and if it dies, it dies and won’t be planted again”.
Thank you for the healthy recipes and the encouraging words!
For a completely different taste, bake your sweet potato in your preferred method. Split your potato and fluff. Add a small amount of butter. Squeeze lemon juice liberally on your potato. Sprinkle coarse ground black pepper generously over the top to your taste. Yum. If the lemon-butter-pepper taste fades, add more lemon and pepper, especially to the skin before you eat it.
Sounds good Katherine!
susan, great, thanks for sweet potatoe recipe for my GF/Daisy free granddaughter, I love cooking for her. I’ll try the corn chowder soup too and send some to my best friends, VN buddies across the street. Cali is really bad from fires right now but sun popped out today and sky isn’t too awful in SJV.