Mediterranean Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

We had our friend Vimmi over for dinner the other night. Since she’s vegetarian, I scanned my “Vegetarian Meals” Pinterest board for ideas. She’s also allergic to gluten, so that vetoed a lot of the options like pasta and pizza. But I came across this recipe for Mediterranean stuffed sweet potatoes and it’s one of my new favorites. It was great served hot, as well as cold leftovers a few days later. 

We cooked the sweet potatoes in the crock pot while at work which is how I’m always going to cook them from now on. It requires zero effort and they turn out perfectly soft inside. 

Recipe (adapted from A Saucy Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 3 T extra virgin olive oil
• 2 T fresh lemon juice, divided
• 1 T lemon zest
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 T chopped fresh parsley, divided
• ¼ t sea salt
• 1 medium ripe avocado
• ¼ cup garlic hummus (or you can use regular hummus and add a clove of garlic)
• ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• Crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. Scrub your sweet potatoes, poke holes in them, and wrap them in foil. Cook them on low in a crock pot for 6-8 hours.

2. In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas, olive oil, 1 T lemon juice, lemon zest, 1 clove garlic, 1 T parsley, and sea salt. Toss to marinate then set aside.

3. In a food processer, blend the avocado, garlic hummus, 1 T parsley, and 1 T lemon juice.

4. Assemble your sweet potatoes. Depending on how hungry you are, either cut a slit in the potatoes to stuff them, or serve half a potato per person (our potatoes were large, so we only ate half per person). Spread the avocado sauce over the potato, then top with the marinated chickpeas, pepitas, and feta. Enjoy!