Loaded sweet potato skins

Baked sweet potatoes with their flesh scooped out and mixed with blue cheese and smokey chorizo, scattered with even more blue cheese then grilled and served with a big leafy green salad – totes amaze.

I’ve been using up some annual leave before the end of the year and this is what I rustled up for lunch after dreaming about it while on my commute into work a few days before. I literally couldn’t wait to get back into my kitchen and start creating things again.  A lot of people are asking me how i’m managing to keep up with my blog and a full-time job. Well the answer is it’s not easy but when you’re passionate about something you make it happen. Shame I can’t be as passionate about doing the ironing or going jogging, but hey, maybe one day.

This recipe is a brilliant lunch when you’ve got people coming over as it looks really pretty and tastes sublime. Sweet potato goes so perfectly with blue cheese, chorizo and rosemary; just bags and bags of flavour. You could also use bacon instead of chorizo, or for the veggies try using a few strips of quorn bacon or roasted red peppers – the spicy sort.

The dressing is thick and creamy and full of tang which finishes off this dish perfectly.

Loaded Sweet Potato Skins with Sour Cream Dressing
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients
4 large sweet potatoes
olive oil
sea salt
dried rosemary

Fillings
50g blue cheese per potato
20g chorizo, chopped per potato (or 3 rashers of quorn bacon if you’re cooking for vegetarians)

For the sour cream dressing
1 small pot soured cream
1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
squeeze of clear honey
zest of half a lemon

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 6. Pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large bowl with a teaspoon each of sea salt flakes and dried rosemary. Chuck your sweet potatoes in and shake them around until their skins are gleaming with oil and peppered with salt and rosemary. Pop them on a tray and bake in the over until soft on the inside – around 45 minutes.
2. Take out of the oven, allow to cool a little and then cut in half, carefully scoop out the soft orange flesh into the same bowl you had the oil in. Using a fork mash up the sweet potato then crumble in the blue cheese, chopped chorizo and another teaspoon of dried rosemary and mix to roughly combine.
3. Lay out your sweet potato skins on the baking sheet, don’t worry if they don’t hold their shape as they’re paper thin. Spoon the potato mixture on top of the skins to roughly cover. Dot with some more blue cheese and then cook under the grill under golden and bubbling.
4. To make the sour cream dressing, in a small bowl or jam jar combine the sour cream with the mustard, honey and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. When you’re ready to plate up scatter a serving dish with some fresh green salad leaves, nestle your loaded potato skins amongst  them and then drizzle with a little of the dressing leaving the dish on the table for guests to add more if they want.