An easy vegan stuffed sweet potato filled with greens, creamy lentils and a tahini drizzle. Perfect for meal prep, ready for a quick healthy lunch or dinner!
Have you wanted to incorporate more legumes or plant proteins into your diet? Though I’m not vegan, I try to create some meals each week that focus on protein sources other than meat, and I also try to “stretch” out meaty dishes like bolognese sauce by adding legumes.
Which brings me to this delicious Vegan Stuffed Sweet Potato, which I created because I wanted a cheap, easy and filling lunch option that made the most of plant-based protein. By baking a few sweet potatoes at once and making a batch of the creamy lentil filling, this recipe sets you up for a couple of quick lunches or dinners.
Baked sweet potato is pretty damn heavenly, guys. A delicious healthy comfort food that’s perfect on those days you just don’t feel like cooking. You only need a minute to set it up in the oven and then you can go off and do other things. I love them baked whole, split it open down the middle and it’s so deliciously soft and tasty inside. Just begging for a yummy topping.
In my Vegan Stuffed Sweet Potato, the centre is filled with a creamy, kind of cheesy smoky lentil mixture…I’m not quite sure how to explain it. Basically, it’s got a great deep savoury flavour, thanks to a mixture of smoked paprika and nutritional yeast, which does kind of give it a “cheesy” element. But not cheesy in a gross way – am I the only one who kind of thinks that description sometimes sounds a bit yuck?!
Anyway. I’ve paired my creamy lentils with a handful of leafy greens (I used rocket in the potatoes pictured, but you can also use baby spinach), a sprinkle of spring onion and a generous drizzle of tahini. To get the tahini to drizzle so perfectly, thin it out with a little bit of water. You can also add a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt to the tahini to make it into more of a dressing. SO good.
This Vegan Stuffed Sweet Potato stores well in the fridge for around 3-4 days, so it’s a great one for meal prep.
If you make this recipe, don’t forget to snap a picture of it and share it to Instagram. You can find me on there as @nourish_everyday – tag me in your pictures!
Vegan Stuffed Sweet Potato with Creamy Lentils
Ingredients
- 3-4 sweet potatoes (medium sized)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180ºC.
- Wash your sweet potatoes and prick a few times with a fork. Place the potatoes on a baking tray and bake in the oven until soft, which should take around 45 mins – 1 hour, depending on the size. [You can place a piece of baking paper under the potatoes to stop them sticking to the tray.]
- While the potatoes are cooking, make the lentil filling. Whisk together the almond milk and tapioca flour in a mug and set aside. Heat a small pan over moderate heat and add the canned lentils, rinsed and drained, to the pan along with a tablespoon of olive oil. Stir in the garlic, smoked paprika and nutritional yeast. Then pour over the almond milk mixture and continue to cook until the mixture gently bubbles and the sauce starts to thicken. Finally stir through the baby spinach until wilted, and season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Make a quick tahini dressing by combining the tahini, a squeeze of lemon juice, a few tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt. Whisk it together, adding a little extra water or tahini as needed until you get a nice consistency. While you are preparing everything, also finely chop the spring onion and rinse the salad leaves if necessary.
- When the sweet potatoes are cooked, allow to cool slightly then cut open down the centre. Layer in a handful of rocket or spinach leaves, top with some lentil mixture and finish with chopped spring onion and a drizzle of tahini dressing.
Notes
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