Twice baked stuffed sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes might be healthier for you than normal potatoes, but I’m generally not a fan. The OH and N won’t eat them at all (they get wise even if I try and mash them in with other potato), so I rarely try anything with them. I just find they’re a bit soggy and don’t crisp up well. Or at least nowhere near normal potatoes.
However, I’m on a diet and potatoes are generally a no no on it. But a sweet potato I could get away with. I’d decided to cook chicken with a tomato, bacon and pepper sauce, with jacket potatoes. As sweet potato jackets aren’t great, I thought I’d try stuffing them and double cooking them instead. Their baked potatoes were just plain, but I was impressed how mine turned out.
It seems filling sweet potatoes removes most of the sweet potato taste, and if you crisp the top enough you’ve got a bit of crispiness to enjoy as well. They were really delicious – and it was so huge, I could only eat half. So I wrapped the cold half in foil and will freeze it until I want to eat it another time. It’ll also keep in the fridge in an airtight container or foil for a few days. Just defrost or take from the fridge and re-bake until cooked through.
The great thing about stuffed potatoes is you can add anything to them. Add leftovers like shredded chicken or ham, sweetcorn or peas, diced pepper, onion, bacon, tuna. The choice is endless.
Have them as the meal base with a lovely green salad on the side, or have as the side with chargrilled or marinated sliced chicken and more veg. You could even do smaller size sweet potatoes (or normal potatoes as they’re cooked the same way), and serve as part of a party buffet. Think like devilled eggs, but with potatoes!
They’re really easy to make, with not much cooking needed, depending on whether you want salad additions cooked off or raw. And whether you’re using leftovers to fill them. So simple, you could make them with children as well. For them, you could set up a pick and mix choice of filling ingredients and get them to mix their own choice up.
To help make the filling smooth and easy to fill the potatoes, you’ll need to add something like crème fraiche, sour cream or plain Greek yoghurt. I had some garlic and herb Philadelphia, so added that instead. Stuffed baked sweet potatoes really are anything goes.
If you prefer normal potatoes, then the recipe works just as well, but you’ll have a longer cooking time.
Twice baked stuffed sweet potatoes recipe
Pimp up your sweet potatoes (or normal baked potatoes) with leftovers, meat or veg fillings for a main meal or side dish
Ingredients
- Sweet potato
- 1 dollop Crème fraiche or as much as required (alternatives can be used)
- 1 Tbsp diced pancetta or lardons (or chopped streaky bacon)
- 2 spring onions sliced
- 1/2 red pepper diced
- Cheddar cheese or another hard cheese, grated
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200C / GM6
Lightly rub olive oil over the sweet potato (optional)
Prick potatoes with skewer or fork
Bake in the oven until cooked through – around 45 minutes
If using bacon and cooking off veg, finely dice or chop, and fry in a little oil until cooked through. Leave aside.
When the potatoes are cooked through, remove from oven, and when cool enough to touch slice in half lengthways.
Scoop out most of the potato flesh leaving a border around the skin to help hold the potato together
Mix the flesh (mash if needed) with the filling ingredients, adding the crème fraiche or cream cheese to mix. You can add some grated cheese into the filling if wanted.
Spoon the filling back into the sweet potato skins. There will be slightly more filling than fits, so either save the remainder to go on bagels or use to top chicken. Or just eat with a spoon!
Top with more grated cheese. Put in a small baking tin and back in the oven until the cheese has melted and gone a bit crispy (about 20 minutes).
Serve either as a main meal with green salad, or as a side to meat or fish and veg.
Why not also try my loaded crispy potato skins using leftovers recipe.
What filling would you include for your stuffed sweet potatoes?
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I’ve always made something similar with white potatoes and never thought to do it with sweet potatoes. This looks a great midweek lunch or with some chicken or pork chops