Baked sweet potato and lentil chilli recipe

We cant get enough of this baked sweet potato lentil chilli recipe from Lorraine Pascale‘s new book How To Be A Better Cook.

‘I remember when there were Spudulike and potato shops on every highstreet. My favourite would be simply loads of butter and lots of cheese. Now we are trying to be more healthy, these potato shops seems to have disappeared. I think someone should do sweet potato shops instead, for a more modern and healthier alternative! To change things up a bit now and again, you could always serve this with either pasta or rice instead.’

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

4-6 large sweet potatoes, washed and dried
Spray oil or 1tbsp sunflower oil
1tbsp sunflower oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 large carrots, thinly sliced
2tsp mild or hot chilli powder
2tsp cayenne pepper
2tsp ground cumin
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into bite-sized chunks
2 red chillies, deseeded for less heat if preferred, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
1 glass port or red wine or a good vegetable stock
75g tomato purée
400g tin of lentils, drained and rinsed
400g tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
198g tin of sweetcorn, drained
1tsp sugar (optional)
4tbsp crème fraîche
Leaves from 1 bunch of fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped.
Flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C, (fan 180°C), 400°F, Gas Mark 6.

Spray the sweet potatoes with some oil, prick them all over with a fork and place them on a baking tray. Once the oven is up to temperature, pop them in to bake for 45 minutes–1 hour, depending on size.

Put the oil in a large pan over a low heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring regularly, until soft but without colour.

Stir in the chilli powder, cayenne and cumin and cook for 1 minute.

Then stir in the peppers, chilli and garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the tinned tomatoes, port (or wine or stock), tomato purée and salt and pepper. Then turn up the heat and bring to the boil, before reducing the heat to simmer for 5 minutes. Next, add the lentils, kidney beans and sweetcorn and leave to simmer for 6–8 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Season to taste, but if you feel the chilli is still a bit tart from the tomatoes, then just add the sugar and cook through for a moment.

Once tender through to the centre when pierced with a knife, remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, slit them in half along their length and place two halves, cut-side up, on each serving plate. Top with the chilli, add a dollop of crème fraîche to each one, scatter the coriander or parsley over and serve straight away.

Recipe from How To Be A Better Cook by Lorraine Pascale (HarperCollins, £25)

Pictures: Maja Smend