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!  

Coriander Chicken with Chickpeas & Kale

Before Pinterest, I used to collect Rachael Ray cookbooks and subscribe to Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine to get dinner inspiration.  I should get a subscription again – even though I have thousands of recipes saved online, I still really enjoy flipping through pages of something I can hold. 

I bought the October issue the other day because I wanted to try out the “Express Lane Suppers.” It outlined 3 easy recipes that could be made with just a 10 ingredient shopping list (it excludes basics you should already have at home like garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper).

We made one of the recipes for dinner tonight and it was amazing!  It took just over 30 minutes and turned out to be a pretty impressive dish.  We have ingredients for the other two dishes as well, so I'll post those later this week when we try them out.

Coriander Chicken with Chickpeas & Kale (adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine, October 2014 issue)

Ingredients:

• 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1½ pounds)
• 1¼ tsp ground coriander
• 1 T olive oil plus more for drizzling
• 2 cans (15 oz. each) chickpeas, rinsed (aka garbanzo beans)
• 1/3 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• Zest and juice of one small orange
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ large bunch curly-leaf kale, stemmed and chopped   
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a bowl, mix 1 tsp of the coriander, ¾ tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper; rub all over the chicken.

3. In a cast iron or ovenproof skillet, heat 1 T olive oil on the stovetop over medium heat.  Cook the chicken, skin side down, until browned, about 8 minutes. Turn and cook 8 more minutes.

4. Transfer the chicken to a plate.  Pour off all but 2 T fat from the skillet.

5. In the same skillet, cook the chickpeas, stock, orange juice, garlic, half the orange zest, and the remaining ¼ tsp coriander over medium heat, stirring, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Nestle the chicken, skin side up, in the chickpeas.  Roast in the oven until juices run clear when pierced with a knife, about 8 minutes.

7. Transfer the chicken to a plate again.  Toss the kale in with the chickpeas and return to the oven for 2 minutes until kale starts to cook down slightly. 

8. Return the chicken to the skillet again, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle the rest of the orange zest.