Piece of life
It took me 32 years to taste my first sweet potato and maybe 1 or 2 years more to learn how to appreciate them. It seems that sweet potato is much more prevalent in Quebec than in France. Anyway, it was in Montreal where I noticed them in evidence at the grocery stores. So, caught by curiosity, I finally bought some. But my first tries were not the best, and I finally had to eat some in a restaurant to get the hang of it.
But pay attention, there are several varieties of sweet potatoes. Once, I bought white sweet potatoes at the market by mistake. So, after the surprise of realizing their light colour inside, their extremely sweet taste disgusted me a little bit. Those are not for me, I prefer the orange sweet potato, sweet but moderated.
About the stuffed sweet potatoes
The sweet potato directly reminds me of South American cuisine; naturally, I wanted to stuff them with a chilli filling. I imagined this dish to be vegetarian, but adding minced meat is possible. The rest of the ingredients are mainly the ones we find in a chilli: beans, peppers, corn, and some chilli touch to spice it up. I would like to add small jalapeño pepper, but my kids are not big fans of heavy-spice food, so I avoided it, but if you want it: go on it! Otherwise, my husband and I could add some tabasco. And it’s not bad this way; everyone can control their dose of spiciness according to their tolerance [mine is much lower than the mister ? ]. We remain in Mexico for service with some tortillas (corn chips) and guacamole. Just missing the margaritas, and the table is complete!
My suggestions
If you are looking for exotic vegetarian dishes, try this chickpea and cauliflower curry full of Indian flavours.
Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potatos
Équipements
Ingredients
- 2 big orange sweet potatos
- 400 g beans (black or red) baked
- 150 g corn
- 1 bell pepper colour to taste
- 1 tomato
- 4 chives green and white parts separated
- 2 gloves garlic
- 1 coffee spoon chili powder
- coriander or parsley
- oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 glass bottom water
- 1 jalapeño pepper or tabasco optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F) and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut the sweet potatoes in half, lengthwise. Moist them with a olive oil drizzzle and season with salt and pepper. Place them on the baking sheet, inner side down (and therefore peel side up). Bake for 30 minutes.
- During this meantime, cut the other vegetables: the bell pepper into strips, the tomato into small cubes, chop the garlic and mince the chives (keep the green part for serving). If your corn is frozen, heat it up in the microwave oven.
- In a frying pan, heat an olive oil drizzle. Add the chives white parts and the garlic. Saute for 1 minute and then, add the bell pepper strips. Saute for about 10 minutes, then add the corn, the beans, the tomato, the chili powder and 1 cup of water (to avoid sticking to the pan). Saute for more 5 minutes.
- Once the sweet potatoes are cooked, remove the inner center of them with a spoon (leave some peel around the edges). Coarsely mash this obtained potato and add it to the previous mixture.
- Fill the sweet potatoes with the mixture. Sprinkle with the chives green parts and coriander (or parsley), and a few drops of tabasco for a some extra spice. Serve with tortillas and guacamole.
