Monday, October 20, 2014

Spinach-Mushroom Stuffed Sweet Potatoes


I love sweet potatoes, but I was an adult by the time I realized they are delicious. All my growing up the only sweet potatoes I encountered were from a can and covered with brown sugar and marshmallows, and I hated them. Then about 8 years ago my world was rocked when I was at a friend's house as she was starting dinner for her family, and part of dinner that night was baked sweet potatoes.

Wait. What?

Come to find out, not only are sweet potatoes are an amazing whole food, they are fantastic when roasted or baked or mashed with just a bit of butter, salt and pepper. They are also pretty easy on my husband's blood sugar, so there ya go: sweet potatoes are on my list of nearly perfect foods.

This spinach-mushroom variety is just one way to stuff sweet potatoes; you can easily change it up with black or white beans, quinoa, chopped roast beef, or sauteed zucchini or kale. Sweet potatoes are so amazing I think they can pull just about anything off.

I feel I should note that this spinach-mushroom filling can be split between 2-4 sweet potatoes, depending on how generous you are while stuffing. My husband and I easily share the filling between the two of us, and accompanied by a simple green salad with an oil/vinegar vinaigrette, it makes a filling meal.

Spinach-Mushroom Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
printable recipe

2-4 medium-sized sweet potatoes (see note above)
1 tablespoon olive or avocado oil
1/2  onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz crimini mushrooms, rinsed and quartered
2 big handfuls baby spinach, coarsely chopped
2-4 teaspoons butter
coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
crumbled feta cheese

1. Heat your oven to 400deg. Scrub your sweet potatoes and prick the skin with a fork. Place the potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake for 30-35 minutes or until tender when tested with a fork.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a 12-in non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, for 5-8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until they have released most of their moisture and have begun to brown a bit (I actually turn up the heat a bit at this point because I like a lot of color development on my mushrooms), 8-10 minutes. Add the spinach, turn off the heat and stir, allowing the residual heat of the mushroom mixture to wilt the spinach.

3. Split open the baked sweet potatoes and use a fork to break up the inside. Add 1 teaspoon of butter and salt and pepper to your taste preference to each potato and mash it around. Stuff the potatoes with the mushroom-spinach mixture and top with the crumbled feta cheese.

Makes 2-4 stuffed potatoes.

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