Arugula Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
By Amie Valpone
There’s something delicious about roasting sweet potatoes in the winter. I’ve been eating sweet potatoes for as long as I can remember but the outer skin used to get so incredibly dry that I spent a while trying to perfect a roasted sweet potato that was more tender and had skin that was just as tender as the inner flesh. My secret is to rub the sweet potatoes with olive oil using your hands before you roast them in the oven. This makes the sweet potatoes incredibly tender and the flavor so much better. I assure you, once you try this trick, you’ll never go back to roasting a dry sweet potato.
Now that you know my secret to the perfect sweet potato, let’s talk about what else you can do with a sweet potato after you roast it. You can add it to soups, salads and whole grain pasta dishes or you can stuff them. My favorite way? To stuff them, of course, which is exactly what I’m going to show you how to do today.
Stuffing sweet potatoes is fairly easy. All you need are a few ingredients that you love (I chose asparagus, quinoa and onions with a touch of lemon juice and lemon zest) but you can choose whatever floats your boat. I like to have a combination of sweet with a kick of spiciness. The sweetness here comes from the sweet potatoes, lemon juice and asparagus while the spiciness comes from the arugula and onions.
To make these stuffed sweet potatoes, simply roast the sweet potatoes (as shown in the directions below) and stuff them with the other ingredients. This really couldn’t be much easier! No matter if you’re a pro in the kitchen or if you’re just starting out, this recipe is very basic and will allow you to explore new flavors and textures with these clean, anti-inflammatory foods.
Enjoy!
Arugula Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 head asparagus, ends trimmed
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 cups packed arugula
¼ cup diced red onion
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp. lemon zest
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Rub the sweet potatoes with 1 Tbsp. olive oil and use a fork to poke holes in each sweet potato. Place the sweet potatoes on the prepared baking sheet and transfer to the oven.
Roast for 50-55 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are very tender.
Meanwhile, cook the asparagus in a large skillet on the stovetop with the remaining 1 Tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Season to taste with sea salt and pepper and cook for about 8-10 minutes, stirring often, or until the asparagus is bright green and tender. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.
Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, set them aside to cool for 10 minutes then use a sharp knife to slice lengthwise ¾ of the way through the sweet potatoes. Stuff the sweet potatoes with the quinoa, asparagus, arugula and onion. Drizzle with lemon juice and garnish with lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve warm.
