These baked sweet potatoes are super filling and nutritious and makes an ideal meal all year long. The potatoes contain a warm spiced lentil stew and drizzled with a creamy and slightly tangy tahini lemon sauce. The dish is bursting in colours and flavours. It’s vegan, gluten- and soy-free, and contains superfoods.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes, an underground tuber, are rich in nutrients like beta carotene, vitamin C, potassium and some B vitamins. They are also relatively high in fibre. In the recipe, they are baked for about 45 minutes to soften them up completely. Plan one per person.
Lentil Stew
While sweet potatoes are baking, prepare the lentil stew and sauce, which are both easy to make. I picked brown lentils but green would work too. Lentils are easy to cook. They don’t require any soaking like beans. You simply cook them in water or broth until the lentils have absorbed all the liquid. Cooking time depends what kind of lentils you use. Lentils can be cooked ahead if you want to save time at dinner. Reserve them until ready to make the lentil stew. I used Inari lentils, which are commonly found here in Montreal.
In a large skillet, you heat olive oil and toast the cumin seeds in it to release flavours. You add the onions, cook until softened and fragrant, then add the rest of the ingredients, stir, and add in the lentils. You cook for about 10 minutes to mix up flavours, add spinach and turn off heat. It’s flavourful as there are a lot of spices but it’s not “spicy”.
Sauce
The sauce is a simple combination of tahini, which is sesame butter (very nutritious), fresh lemon juice, maple syrup (or honey!), garlic, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
To make the sauce, you combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until silky smooth. You then drizzle on top of the potatoes and garish with fresh chopped herbs.
Guys. This is good. I had a guest over and he absolutely loved it too. Kids and hubby too. If you’d like to try something different but that is super flavourful, give a try to this recipe!
Talk soon, hope you enjoy it!
Also, if you like the combination of lentils and sweet potatoes, make sure to check out my Lentil Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie recipe. It’s so good!!!!
Baked Sweet Potatoes with Spiced Lentils and Tahini Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 small/medium sweet potatoes
- 1 cup brown or green lentils, rinsed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 medium tomatoes, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon unrefined salt
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander
- Pinch cinnamon
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 4 cups spinach
- Chopped cilantro or parsley, for garnish
- Sauce
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or local honey
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon unrefined salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Wash and rub sweet potatoes. Poke a few wholes with a knife in each potatoes then place on a baking sheet. Bake in preheat oven until very tender, about 45 to 50 minutes. Put sweet potatoes aside from heat and turn off oven.
- Cook lentils in water or broth according to package directions. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add cumin seeds and let them cook, stirring, for about a minute. Then, add onions and cook until softened, about 3 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, garlic, ginger, salt, paprika, coriander, cinnamon and pepper, and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes.
- Add in lentils, stir again and let cook for a few more minutes before adding spinach and turning off heat. Set aside.
- To make the sauce, add tahini, water, lemon, maple syrup, garlic, salt and pepper in a small blender and blend until silky smooth.
- Cut the sweet potato lengthwise with a knife and gently open the potatoes. Fill with lentils, drizzle with sauce and top with fresh herbs. Serve.
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