Fall is upon us and I am feeling the flavors! Driving home from work this evening I had a craving for sweet potatoes.  I haven’t posted ANY recipes using this vegetable and I think it’s time for that to change. [Sidenote: I have posted 113 recipes in my almost 2 years of the blog and that has included butternut squash mac and cheese as well as a barley and butternut squash pilaf. I realize that this is a completely different vegetable but I feel the need to prove momentarily that I have not completely overlooked this general category of food.]

Anyways, as I walked to my corner market this evening to grab a few tubers I was running through some options for this inaugural sweet potato post.  I could make a warm soup with coconut milk, a pasta with cream sauce, thick sweet potato fries, or I could mash them with a bit of maple syrup.   But, I wanted this creation to serve my full meal and so I chose to do a baked stuffed potato topped with a garlic curry aioli.

Have I mentioned before how much I love a good baked potato? So much so that we had a make your own baked potato bar at our wedding. (Not a joke). Tonight I found some fresh kale at the market and we had a handful of mushrooms in the fridge that I wanted to use before the week was over.  I was going back and forth between quinoa and lentils, but the lentils added a hearty protein to the final meal.  

Turned out better than I had expected and I would indeed make a variation of this again in the future. What are your favorite sweet potato recipes? I’m hooked!

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/3 cup dry french lentils
• 1/2 onion – minced
• 2 garlic cloves – minced
• 4 kale leaves
• 1 small handful of mushrooms – diced
• 1 – 2 Tablespoons of Fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 carton of chicken stock
• 1 Teaspoon of Curry powder
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Steps and Notes:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Wash the potatoes, pierce them with a fork, spray with oil, then bake for 45 -55 minutes until potatoes are tender
3. Boil the lentils in stock for 30 minutes (again, taste to be sure they are done)
4. Create the aioli by combining the greek yogurt, lemon juice, 1 clove of minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Then, add the curry powder and cayenne. Adjust as desired, then place in the fridge until mealtime.
5. Rip the stem off of the kale leaves and then dice into small ribbons
6. Saute the onions and garlic in a pan. Then, add some stock, the kale, and the mushrooms.  Stir so that the kale is fully coated then cover and turn the burner to low.  Cook for about 10 minutes.
   • Note: I prefer the veggies to have a bit of a crunchy element – but cook to your desired bite
7. Add a light sprinkle of curry to the veggies and cook for an extra minute.
8. Remove the sweet potato from the skin and place into a small mixing bowl with a splash of chicken stock. Mash well.
9. Then, add a few spoonfuls of lentils as well as a few spoonfuls of the veggie mixture.
10. Spoon the mixture into the sweet potato skin and enjoy!

Thoughts for Next Time:

• Create a ‘twice baked’ stuffed potato – perhaps taco flavored
• Use quinoa as the grain
• One of the amazing variations found on this list