Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Chickpea Spinach and Avocado Crema

This is artful, delicious, and fun to make. The recipe calls for stuffing the potatoes in individual servings, but I did it with a deconstructed approach. You need to think ahead - make sure you have a few ripe avocados. And roasting the potatoes in advance makes it easier. This is a forgiving recipe - change amounts, add vegetables. I served it with fresh artichokes first and brown rice - a beautiful meal.

6-8 sweet potatoes, roasted at 425 for about 45-50 minutes
3 T olive oil

one onion, chopped, or shallots
4 cloves minced garlic
3 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
6 oz. chopped sun-dried tomatoes. A scissors works better than a knife.
1 container fresh spinach (quantity is fungible)
1 lime, zested and juiced
salt, pepper

Heat olive oil until shimmering and add onions or shallots. Cook about 3 minutes and add garlic for another 30 seconds.

Add the chickpeas and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the spinach until it wilts.

Add salt, pepper, and zested lime along with its juice.

In the meantime, work on the Avocado Crema.

3 ripe avocados

1/2 c Greek yogurt

1 lime, zested and juiced into the mixture

red pepper flakes or Aleppo pepper

salt, pepper

Peel and dice the avocados, a messy job!

Drop them in along with the yogurt, and process them until they're smooth. 

Add the zest and lime juice, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

It discolors if you leave it open. There are methods for avoiding this - us a plastic top adhered directly to it, and refrigerate.

Serve a platter of the sweet potatoes and the chickpeas separately.