I’ve got a secret to tell you. I don’t know whether to be embarrassed about this or not, but I’ve been eating baked sweet potatoes at least once a week for a very long time. They’ve become my default, simple, go-to, easy dinner of choice and I’m not even beginning to get bored of them.
One of the very first recipes that was never put on this blog for you was about baked sweet potatoes. I know that’s a confusing sentence, but what I mean is that one of the first recipes that I pondered over endlessly, planned and procrastinated, then almost posted, was baked sweet potatoes. I’ve still got the draft sitting in a folder, I just didn’t take the photos.
Because, my brothers and sisters, did you know that you can bake them like a regular potato? Cooked whole in the oven then sliced and topped with whichever fillings your precious heart desires? I must concede, at first I thought it might be a bit odd, but I gave it a go with baked beans and cheese and I liked it. Plus you can feel content in the knowledge of the ultra-healthiness of these root vegetables, which makes them both convenient and wholesome, so everyone’s a winner.
The trick to the success of their longevity in my diet, is their versatility. Baked sweet potatoes give you a colourful, lusciously sweet blank canvas to work with, that allows all sorts of good stuff to happen on top. The recipe for you here is hugely colourful both in flavour and looks, so makes for an eye popping yet tasty and simplistic midweek dinner that’s very hard to get bored of.
Spicy avocado sweet potatoes
By Gavin Wren
Serves 2
Uses 1 baking tray
PDF recipe card to download or print
Ingredients
2 sweet potatoes about 250g each
A drizzle of olive oil
1 lime, halved.
2 small avocados, peeled and crushed.
Approx 50g bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, sliced
Directions
Wash and dry the sweet potatoes, then top and tail them. Rub them with just enough olive oil to coat the skins. Place them on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the toppings. When the potatoes are cooked, take them out of the oven and put one on each plate. Cut in half lengthways and squish them so that they spread out on the plate a bit.
Squeeze the lime juice all over the potato flesh. Top this with avocado, then scatter liberally with coriander and finally top with the red chilli.