merrifood

Baked sweet potatoes with avocado, cucumber, and pepper salsa

Posted by merrifood on August 8, 2012 · 1 Comment 

With my first friend visiting Sydney, I had quite the whirlwind weekend exhausting her showing her all over Sydney and its surrounding suburbs, which of course included various food adventures (soon to be written about).  By the end of Sunday, I was definitely ready for a light and healthy homemade meal.  I’d run across this recipe on a blog through Tastespotting (obviously) earlier in the week and figured it would be the perfect time to try it out.  The original recipe called for normal baked potatoes but I think sweet potatoes are far superior so I used those, and it worked out great.

Baked sweet potatoes with avocado, cucumber, and pepper salsa (loosely adapted from Feed Your Awesome Machine)

Serves 2 (depending on portion size, could be some leftovers for lunch the next day too)

Ingredients

2 small sweet potatoes (or 1 bigger one that you can just end up cutting into pieces, which is what I had to do since Australia apparently does not sell small sweet potatoes in its grocery stores)

1 medium red pepper

1 handful of cherry tomatoes if possible (not necessary, would be great but I refuse to buy a tiny thing of cherry tomatoes for $4)

1 ripe avocado

1 English cucumber (A little longer and thinner than normal cucumbers, I feel this holds its shape better)

Handful of coriander/cilantro if you like that (I skipped it)

Juice of 1/2 lime

Instructions

Prick the potato/potatoes with a fork in several places and bake in a 200 degree C / 400 degree F oven for at least 45 minutes, until they are quite tender (you could easily slice them with a knife).  While it’s baking, chop up the pepper, cucumber, tomatoes if you have them, and avocado and combine it all in a large bowl.  Add the cilantro if using and then squeeze the lime all over the veggies and thoroughly mix it all together with a spoon.  Add a sprinkling of sea salt if you so desire.  Place in the fridge until ready to use.

When the potatoes are ready to go, remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and then slice them open (or just put a thick slice of one in a bowl) and spoon the salsa all over them.  I actually served them with a side of these brussel sprouts, but a side of grilled steak or chicken would go wonderfully with that salsa and make for a nice non-vegetarian meal.

All the veggies chopped up

Finished product over the sweet potato pieces

This was so simple, really delicious, and a perfect light meal after all our weekend adventuring and eating.  Definitely something I’d make again!