I don't know about you, but I happen to love sweet potato. Scratch that; I absolutely adore them. And once you've tried this recipe you will too. Luckily for me, being a newbie student, sweet potatoes are cheap and they are coming into season now (their peak season is October through to March), meaning that they can feature in a whole load of student recipes I will be bringing to you.
Sweet potatoes rich orange colour, and amazing taste, tend to work well with spices: ginger, cinnamon, cumin, turmeric...all these spices feature in today's recipe, which has a Middle Eastern feel to it, also utilising another favourite of mine: pomegranate seeds. Are you seeing the vibrant colours of this dish yet? (I hope you are, even if your imagination is lacking, because I have added a picture for you).
Anyway... this simple, healthy, protein rich, cheap, and quick dish could be on your slightly grubby student dinner table this evening- if you just follow the steps below. It does utilise turkey breast, but if you're vegetarian you can swap this for any meat substitute of your choice.
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1 triangle of low fat cream cheese (or full fat if you prefer, it doesn't really matter)
- 1 handful of spinach
- 2tbsp pomegranate seeds
- 1 handful fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
- 1 turkey breast fillet
- 1/2tsp each of: turmeric, cumin, ginger
- 3/4tsp cinnamon
- Fry light, or oil (1tsp of the latter at most)
- Tabasco, to taste
- Small handful of button mushrooms (I used two)
- 1 ripe tomato
Method
- Begin with cooking the turkey: preheat the oven to 180*c, spray a baking tray with oil and then chop the turkey breast into bites sized pieces. Place the turkey onto the baking tray, and then sprinkle with the spices, before tossing the pieces of meat so that they are all evenly coated in the spice mix. Add tabasco to the turkey, before placing into the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the turkey pieces are cooked through. When adding the tabasco go by how hot you generally like your food: if you hate spicy food then leave this ingredient out altogether.
- Whilst the turkey is cooking prepare the other ingredients. Chop the tomato and the mushrooms in to chunks. In a dish beat the cream cheese and spinach together, before adding the tomatoes and beating once more. Fold in the mushrooms, and then half the mint and pomegranate seeds. Place this to one side.
- Cut the very ends off the sweet potato, and pierce all over (to allow steam to be released, and prevent all potato explosions), before placing into the microwave and cooking until the flesh softens enough for a knife to be easily inserted. This took around 5-6 minutes in an 800W microwave.
- By now the turkey should be cooked, so add this to the cheese and spinach mix, and stir until evenly distributed. Take the cooked sweet potato and cut a slit down the middle. Push the two ends of the potato inwards, so that the slit opens up enough to pile in the filling. Proceed to do just so. You may have filling remaining, I chose to use this as the base for the salad surrounding my stuffed potato, along with more spinach.
- Place the potato onto a baking tray (the same one as the turkey will do) and into the oven for 5-10 minutes.
- Once time is up, serve topped with the remaining chopped mint, and 1tbsp. of pomegranate seeds.
Labels: cream cheese, easy healthy recipe, Food, healthy lifestyle, healthy recipe, jacket potato, lunch, main meal, pomegranate seeds, potato, spices, sweet potato, vegetarian
