Loaded Sweet Potatoes with Chili Beans

Pin It Now!

I have been on an economy drive for a few months now. Well, I guess some people would still consider that I spend way too much on non-essential stuff and indulge in luxuries, such as a pre-Christmas New York trip and my twentieth or so (who counts) pair of shoes, but we all have things that for us are priorities, thangs that make us happy and on which we do not want to cut back. Other things however I am trying to cut back on and one of those is food, funnily enough.

It seems like a bit of a contradiction, as I obviously love good food, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this blog, but cutting back for me doesn't mean starting to buy cheap meat or low quality ingredients for example. Instead I'm trying to waste less and consider what I buy more. That means making weekly meal plans and taking home-made lunches to work, rather than buying over-priced, over-cooked food in the canteen.

It doesn't have to be expensive to eat well. But, I guess we all know those nights where we don't like using what we've bought in and instead we nip out to the over-priced local late-opening shop to buy something different for dinner or even order a take away. Well, it's those I'm trying to avoid. I'm trying to stick to what I have planned, which also means that I throw a lot less food away because it has gone smelly or slimy in the depth of the fridge. It seems to be a winning plan all around.

I found the recipe for Loaded Sweet Potatoes with Chili Beans on A Couple of Cooks. It's good food, that's easy to make, tastes wonderful, fills you up and the ingredients don't cost much at all. Plus I am already looking forward to having the left-overs for lunch tomorrow and if you can't bear the thought of eating the same things two days in a row, why not try the beans on a normal baked potato, or with rice or as a Quesadilla filling. I have made a couple of additions to the original recipe, so here's my version.



Loaded Sweet Potatoes with Chili Beans (serves 4)

4 large sweet potatoes
olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
2 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 x 400g can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tsp vegetable stock powder
2tsp brown sugar
salt, to taste
blak pepper, to taste
3 green onions, sliced
grated cheese cheese
sour cream
fresh corriander, chopped roughly

Preheat the oven to 230C/Gas 8.

Wash the sweet potatoes and prick them with a fork. Place in the oven to bake for 40 minutes, until tender.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy based pan. Sweat the onions over a medium heat until translucent, but not brown.

Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes, beans, chili powder, cumin, stock powder and sugar and simmer for about 20 minutes until thickned a little.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Once the sweet potatoes are tender, remove them from the oven and cut them open.

Top with chili beans, shredded cheese, sour cream, green onions, and fresh corriander.

Enjoy!