Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Chickpeas and Avocado Crema

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes are a hearty and healthy vegetarian meal, packed with bold Mediterranean flavors. To make them, I fill roasted sweet potatoes with garlicky chickpeas, tangy sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and lime, then top them with creamy avocado spread. Perfect for a cozy lunch or dinner, this dish is as satisfying as it is easy!

A stuffed sweet potato may not be able to solve all your problems, but it’s a real answer to the problem of what to make when I need something hearty, healthy, and full of flavor. Packed with a warming chickpea filling and silky greens, these stuffed sweet potatoes are comforting, yet healthy.

Roasting whole sweet potatoes until their natural sugars caramelize and their skins become papery and pleasantly charred is my favorite weekly meal prep task. I eat them on their own or topped with fried eggs and feta for breakfast. At lunch or dinner time, they are the perfect container for this warm chickpea filling dried tomatoesspinach and a squeeze of lime. Finished with a dollop of avocado cream, this recipe is a celebration of flavors: earthy, tangy and naturally sweet.

What I love most about this recipe is how simple it is to put together. It’s a low-effort recipe with a big payoff, making it ideal for evenings when you want something hearty but don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. If you plan ahead, you can roast the sweet potatoes ahead of time and reheat them when you’re ready to assemble them, which makes this dish even easier.

Summary

1. Ingredients for stuffed sweet potatoes
2. How to Make Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
3. How to move forward
4. How to prepare stuffed sweet potatoes
5. What to serve with stuffed sweet potatoes
6. Some favorite sweet potato recipes
7. Stuffed Sweet Potato Recipe

Ingredients for stuffed sweet potatoes

With a few exceptions, everything in this stuffed sweet potato recipe is a kitchen staple, at least in my Mediterranean diet pantry, making it easy to make them any night of the week. Here’s everything you’ll need:

• Sweet potatoes they become tender and caramelized when roasted whole, creating the perfect base. Look for medium-sized potatoes so they cook evenly and are easy to stuff. You will need four for this amount of filling, but I like to cook more for meal prep!
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil: To fry the chickpea filling, a good extra virgin olive oil is essential. I use ours Private Reserve of Olive Oil for its rich and fruity flavor.
• Shallot they are delicate, slightly sweet onions that add depth to the chickpeas without overpowering them.
• Garlic: A Mediterranean staple that infuses the filling with warm, flavorful notes.
• Chickpeas: Rich in protein and hearty, chickpeas make filling satisfying and nutritious. I use canned chickpeas for convenience, but you can also use dried cooked chickpeas.
• Sun Dried Tomatoes: The concentrated sweetness of the dried tomatoes gives a touch of flavor to the filling. I prefer dry packaging dried tomatoesbut you can also use those in a jar in olive oil.
• Baby spinach adds freshness and a boost of nutrients to the filling. Because it wilts quickly, it’s a quick and easy way to get some greens.
• Lime: The juice brightens the chickpea mixture, balancing the sweetness of the potatoes, and the zest adds a citrus finish.
• Kosher salt and black pepper: Indispensable for seasoning each layer of the dish.
• Fresh coriander or parsley: A garnish that adds a fresh, herbaceous finish.
• Avocado creamone of my favorite toppings, it’s a fluffy whipped mixture of creamy avocado, greek yogurt, lemon or lime juice and a little chili pepper.

How to Make Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

While some stuffed sweet potato recipes call for cooking the potatoes twice – once on their own and again once filled – I like to keep it simple and cook, fill and eat. Here’s the step-by-step breakdown.

How to move forward

Prepare the components ahead of time and you can enjoy stuffed sweet potatoes as an easy lunch with just a little assembly.

• Roast the sweet potatoes. You can roast the sweet potatoes a few days ahead and reheat them in an oven or toaster. I find that heating them to 180°C for about 15 minutes solves the problem.
• Prepare the chickpea filling. You can also pre-cook the chickpea filling and then, once cooled, store it in the fridge in an airtight container. Reheat it before adding it to the reheated sweet potatoes. If I’m going to use it this way, I will often wait to add the spinach until I’m ready to reheat it so that the tender leaves don’t get too soggy.
• Prepare the avocado cream. The reason avocado crema will always win over traditional guacamole in my book is that it doesn’t brown as quickly, so you can make it a couple days ahead and then use it whenever you want. The acidity of the citrus and yogurt help stabilize it, so it lasts well in the fridge for a few days.

How to prepare stuffed sweet potatoes

The method for this recipe is wonderfully versatile and can easily be adapted based on what you have on hand. Here are some simple variations to try.

• Add more spices: Add a pinch of cayenne pepper or a tablespoon of harissa with chickpeas for an extra boost.
• Try a different filling: Use cooked lentils in place of chickpeas or swap the filling with black bean and corn slaw for a Southwestern-inspired twist that pairs perfectly with the avocado cream.
• Add protein: Stir in shredded rotisserie chicken, chicken Shawarma or crumbled feta to give the chickpea filling additional protein and flavor.
• Change your coverage: Replace the Avocado Cream with Tzatziki Sauce or Tahini Sauce.
• It gets smoky: Add smoked paprika to chickpeas to give them a beautiful red color and aroma.
• Use different herbs: Swap the cilantro or parsley garnish for fresh dill or mint.
• Make it a treat: Slice the sweet potatoes crosswise and roast them using this method. Serve them seasoned with the chickpea mixture and a dollop of cream.

What to serve with stuffed sweet potatoes

The beauty of this stuffed sweet potato recipe is that it offers the complete package: nutritious, fiber-rich carbohydrates from the potatoes, protein and more fiber from the chickpeas, tender greens, tangy and sweet sun-dried tomatoes and then a touch of freshness from the citrus fruits . , cream and aromatic herbs.

If you want to add something, I think a salad would be a welcome addition. In summer I would add a refreshing watermelon salad with feta, cucumber and mint.

For the rest of the year I prefer something crunchy to contrast the softness of the potatoes. I love this crunchy Mediterranean tomato and cucumber salad or radish and cucumber salad. When I eat stuffed sweet potatoes for lunch, I like to add a glass of hibiscus tea, delicious and refreshing, or intertwine as it is called in Egypt, on ice.

This stuffed sweet potato recipe works beautifully as a satisfying vegetarian main course, but it’s also versatile enough to serve as a side for a larger meal with friends or family. They would be wonderful as a healthy accompaniment to a grilled steak or Orange Harissa Lamb Chops.

Some favorite sweet potato recipes

Browse all Mediterranean recipes.

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