EVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY
THEME: HEALTHY IDEAS
RECIPE: CURRIED CHICKPEA STUFFED SWEET POTATOES
Curried Chickpea Stuffed Sweet Potatoes is a healthy, delicious, filling and easy to make healthy, gluten free meal. Enjoy it for lunch or dinner and it is a perfect hot meal for the cold season. Basically, I prepare a thick chickpea curry and stuff baked sweet potato with it and serve with some plain thick yogurt.
Actually, I love sweet potatoes whether they are the whitish oriental variety or the orange flesh ones. The Oriental variety is commonly available in Kenya and India. However, sometimes they are quite small and not really ideal to stuff them. Usually, those ones I bake or boil and enjoy with some salt, chilli powder and generous amount of lemon juice drizzled over it.
Now the Beauregard or Jewel variety that I’ve seen in abundance in the supermarkets in Montreal and Magog are another story altogether. Some are quite large and are perfect as a meal option. The soft and moist texture of the flesh makes them ideal for baking, roasting and mashing. What I also like about them is that they are not overtly too sweet. Adding a stuffing to them adds a perfect balance of the savoury and slight sweetness.
Sweet Potatoes
Did you know though sweet potato is slightly sweet in taste, it is an ideal food for diabetics? It has a low glycemic index which means that it does not cause a sudden spike in blood sugar levels.
Another fun fact – sweet potatoes are not actually potatoes! While potatoes are tubers (tubers are storage parts of a plant) and sweet potatoes are roots of the sweet potato plant.
What Else Can You Stuff Baked Sweet Potatoes With?
Basically anything that you may like.
- Try with some refried beans, topped with avocado and salsa or guacamole.
- Stir fried mixed vegetables in soy sauce or sweet and sour sauce.
- Boiled or fried eggs, and top it with avocado, tomatoes, bacon, etc
- How about stuffing it with quinoa or couscous with some fresh salad.Drizzle some vinaigrette or creamy salad dressing over it.
- Use any leftover vegetable, curry or thick lentil curry.
Some Sweet Potato Recipes That You May Like:
fluffy and soft Sweet Potato Rolls
Sweet Potato, Beans and Corn Wraps
Easy to Make Sweet Potato Shaak/ Stir Fried Sweet Potato
Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry
A Bit About The Group:
In brief, every month a new theme is chosen by members. Furthermore, the participants are paired up. In turn, they give each other 2 secret ingredients to use in their recipe which is prepared fitting the theme.
As soon as their dish is ready, the photo is shared on our Facebook group. The other participants try and guess the secret ingredients. Towards the end of the month the recipe is shared on the group. Furthermore, members get to know each other and interact with them.
This Month’s Theme
This Month’s Theme, HEALTHY IDEAS is what we call the Admins Theme. My co admin is Renu who blogs at Cook With Renu. For this theme she has prepared …
My Partner
This month my partner is Kalyani who blogs at Sizzling Tastebuds. Kalyani’s blog is a multicuisine Vegetarian Blog and I love some of her vegan recipes. On the list to try is the healthy and different Quinoa Dosa where she has not used any rice. For the Healthy Ideas theme I suggested that she uses coconut and lemon. With those ingredients Kalyani has shown how healthy banana stems are and how to prepare a side dish with it. Vazhai Thandu Usli is usually enjoyed with rice and rasam, sambar or kuzhambu by her family.
Kalyani suggested that I use garlic and chillis. I’ve used both fresh chillis and red chilli powder for my Curried Chickpea Stuffed Sweet Potato.
Ingredients Required For Curried Chickpea Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Sweet Potatoes – choose medium to large ones
- Chickpeas – cooked. To cook them at home, soak them overnight in warm water. Next day drain out the water, wash the chickpeas and cook them in a pressure cooker, Instant Pot or in a saucepan with enough water and some salt. Or you can used canned chickpeas.
- Oil – any vegetable oil of your choice. I have used sunflower oil.
- Cumin Seeds – jeera.
- Onion – red, yellow or white. Peeled and chopped finely.
- Garlic – peeled and either chopped finely or minced.
- Ginger – fresh ginger, peeled and minced or grated.
- Green Chillis – add according to your taste. Finely chopped or minced.
- Fresh Tomato Puree – use homemade or canned. Also known as passata. For homemade puree, cut tomatoes into halves and put them in a saucepan with very little water. Cover the pan and cook them till they are soft. Puree the cooked tomatoes in a blender. Store in the fridge.
- Water – for the curry
- Coriander Powder – available in most stores.
- Cumin Powder – jeera powder. Can make the powder easily at home. Roast cumin seeds over low heat in a pan till they are light brown in colour. Allow the seeds to cool and grind in a spice blender.
- Garam Masala – optional. Available readily in most stores.
- Turmeric Powder – haldi.
- Red Chilli Powder – add according to your taste.
- Salt – add according to your taste.
- Fresh Coriander/ Cilantro – for garnishing.
- Thick Plain Yogurt – or Greek Yogurt. Top the stuffed sweet potatoes with the yogurt. Can use sour cream instead.
Watch How To Prepare Curried Chickpeas Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
CURRIED CHICKPEA STUFFED SWEET POTATOES
Ingredients
FOR THE SWEET POTATOES
- 4 large sweet potatoes
FOR THE CURRIED CHICKPEAS/CHICKPEA CURRY
- 1 cup chickpeas cooked
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 medium onion peeled and chopped
- 4-6 cloves of garlic peeled and minced
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp green chilli paste
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- ½ tsp garam masala optional
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 cup tomato puree
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
BAKING THE SWEET POTATOES
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Wash the sweet potatoes well.
- Make some cuts in the potatoes on all for sides.. just slide in a sharp knife and remove.
- Wrap the sweet potatoes in some aluminum foil.
- Place them on a baking sheet.
- Bake the sweet potatoes for 30 -45 minutes.
- Stab each potato with a knife. If the knife goes in easily then the sweet potatoes are baked well.
- Remove from the oven. Unwrap them.
- Cut a long slit lengthwise on top of each sweet potato.
- Using a teaspoon, scoop out little bit of the flesh to make some space for the curried chickpeas.
PREPARATION OF THE CURRIED CHICKPEAS/CHICKPEA CURRY
- While the sweet potatoes are baking, get the curried chickpeas ready.
- Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.
- Add cumin seeds and allow them to sizzle.
- Add chopped onion. Stir fry till they are soft.
- Add garlic, ginger and green chilli pastes. Stir fry for a minute.
- Add garam masala, coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli powder. Mix well.
- Add salt and the tomato puree. Mix well.
- Add water. Cover the pan and allow the curry to cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes.
- Remember to stir it in between so that the curry does not burn.
- When the curry becomes thick, remove the pan from the heat. Keep it covered in the pan till required.
PREPARATION OF CURRIED CHICKPEA STUFFED SWEET POTATOES
- To each scooped out sweet potato add about 2-3 tbsp of the chickpea curry. Make sure you heat the curry up before adding to the sweet potatoes.
- Add about 1-2 tbsp of thick plain yogurt on top of each stuffed sweet potato.
- Garnish with some chopped coriander/cilantro and sprinkle some chilli flakes if you want to.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- Use a leftover curry to stuff the baked sweet potatoes.
- Can prepare the chickpea curry ahead.
- Use the scooped out sweet potato flesh to prepare pattis, stuffed parathas, in a soup or add to a curry. Or simply mash it with some butter, fresh herbs and serve as a side dish.
- Make sure you bake the potatoes in a baking sheet as sometimes the sweet natural water from the potatoes oozes out.
- Baking time will depend on the size of the sweet potatoes.
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If you do try this recipe then please either
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