By: Shanika from Orchids + Sweet Tea (Orchidsandsweettea.com)
When it comes to eating clean at my house, I’m a big believer in bold flavor and a ton of unique ingredients that marry well together. Eating a vegan diet for the past two weeks has opened up my eyes to a whole new world of ingredients that I couldn’t even imagine would fit perfectly together in one dish. And let’s not forget the obvious fact that eating a vegan diet has opened up my taste buds as well. Haha!
Anyway, this particular dish was something that I decided to experiment with, especially when it came to using many different ingredients in which each has their own bold flavor. Firstly, I should start by saying that I’m in complete love with sweet potatoes! I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a bit of sweetness to their potatoes, right? Well, in this dish, I used Japanese sweet potatoes, which personally taste a whole lot better than regular sweet yams. Granted, sweet yams taste mighty good when using them in a sweet potato pie, but these Japanese ones are so good that you could eat them by themselves, without the need for any other side. I mean, they are that good guys! Plus, I usually take a shortcut when preparing them by wrapping each sweet potato (individually) in a wet paper towel and placing them in the microwave in increments of 5 minutes, until they are tender. Yes, they are that easy to prepare!
Going back to this dish—-so, I used sweet potatoes as my base and decided to stuff them with multi-colored quinoa, spinach, arugula, tomatoes, and topped it with a quick and easy guacamole. It was delicious! It was super easy to make and did not require much time to cook. Once your sweet potatoes are cooked, you simply sauté your greens and assemble! Then you simply pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes or so and wallah! You have a great meal that is so filling and healthy! Let’s not forget the “extra” sweet potato and multi-colored quinoa that you’ll have leftover. I simply served them together on the side as a little grab and eat situation in between bites of the loaded sweet potato.
To be honest, I think that the star of this entire dish was not only the sweet potatoes, but in fact the guacamole that I made. It was quick, very simple, and bursting with avocado taste, which I love too by the way! For this topping, I just sliced and mashed a ripe hass avocado, added a teaspoon of lemon juice, a pinch of sea salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. BAM! A light guacamole to add a bit of creaminess to everything! There you have it! Happy clean eating!
Loaded Sweet Potato topped with Guacamole
Cook: 20 mins
Total: 35 mins
Author: Shanika
Ingredients
- Two medium sweet potatoes (baked or microwaved)
- 1 cup of spinach
- 1 cup of arugula
- 1 cup of multi-colored Quinoa (cooked according to packaging)
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic (minced)
- 1 medium tomato (diced)
- Salt + black pepper to taste
- Guacamole (for topping)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in medium saucepan. Add garlic and cook for a couple minutes, until fragrant and slightly browned.
- Add spinach and arugula and toss to coat. Add diced tomatoes and toss until greens become wilted. Season with salt and black pepper to taste and remove from heat.
- To assemble: Slice sweet potatoes in half lengthwise (scooping out insides and setting it aside in a small bowl), then top each potato with multi-colored quinoa, 2 Tbsps of mashed sweet potato, spinach, arugula, and tomatoes.
- Place on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and top with guacamole and serve. Bon Appetit!
Feel free to comment below and let us know if you try this and how you get on!
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Helene
August 20, 2017 at 4:23 pmThis looks absolutely gorgeous! Will have to make it, because Guacamole is one of my faves:)
blognewser
August 21, 2017 at 7:55 amMmm same here! Guacamole and sweet potato is such a good match! Adding quinoa makes it super healthy too. Yum