This Healthy Baked Sweet Potato with Moroccan Lentils is a nutritionally balanced one-dish vegan meal that’s delicious too.
Get to know our friend Gena. Some of you may remember that a few years ago she wrote an article on A Couple Cooks called 5 Tips for a Balanced Diet. It started like this:My name is Genea. I’m a food blogger, vegan cookbook author, nutritionist and future RD. I am also recovering from thirteen years of recurrent anorexia and orthorexia.“Powerful words. In the years that followed, Gena Hamshaw became a dear friend. She is the face behind food blog The Full Helping and the author of three vegan cookbooks. Today we’re sharing a delicious recipe from his latest book, Power Plates: this healthy Baked Sweet Potato with Moroccan Lentils.
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About eating disorders and healing
Gena works as a nutritionist and is currently doing her Master of Science in Nutrition and Education. I admire so many things about Gena: her ability to excel in so many things, her generous spirit, and her courage to pass through professional and personal trials. (And of course her fabulous baked sweet potato recipe!) But one of the things I admire most is her fearlessness and vulnerability to speaking out about important issues to help others heal. Gena’s courage to speak out on food-related issues in a gentle and constructive way has touched the lives of thousands of people around the world. In the post she wrote for our site, she went on to say:
“I usually say I’m ‘recovered,’ not recovered. In many ways it is true: I have gained weight and have been physically healthy for many years. I no longer engage in disordered eating habits, no longer have “fear food” or try to exercise control over my life by restricting or manipulating food. I love food – it’s probably my greatest passion – and I love to eat.
But I couldn’t help but think that maybe the word “recovered” is a little too neat and tidy to describe the before and after of eating disorders. In many ways we are still recovering from the struggle even as the healing takes us to places where we feel more freedom, joy and peace than ever before. I think part of being committed to the ongoing journey of recovery is understanding that balance doesn’t just happen, it takes effort and awareness, at least for some of us.
When Gena and I met I was struggling with my own issues of seeing food in a healthy way and understanding balance. In the evenings I would often search the pantry for anything made out of sugar, stuff myself and then fall into a vicious cycle of guilt and shame. In Gena I found an advocate of balanced eating: eating where food is both pleasure and a source of nourishment, pleasure when it feels good, and eating until satisfied but not past the point of well-being.
Related: 15 Best Lentil Recipes | How to cook lentils
About the book: Power Plates
What a joy to share a recipe from Gena’s new cookbook Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced One-Dish Vegan Meals today! The concept of this book is unlike any other we’ve seen: Each recipe is nutritionally balanced to prepare a complete meal in one dish. This means that every meal contains the most important macronutrients healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and protein. So you don’t have to worry about preparing side dishes or snacks. These recipes are complete meals. That speaks well for Alex and my pretty basic cooking sweet spot, as most nights it’s about all we can do to make a main course.
Make this healthy baked sweet potato recipe
The balanced meal specific to a dish we chose to try? This healthy Baked Sweet Potatoes recipe with Moroccan lentils! And mine is this vegan lentil recipe unusual! Sweet potatoes are boiled until moist and tender. Then they are covered in lentils mixed with Moroccan flavors: cumin, cinnamon peppers and harissa, along with greens. To top it all off, a creamy lemon tahini sauce brings it all together. Bold sweet potatoes and hearty hot lentils go together perfectly: delicious to death! Alex and I loved this new version of one of our favorite vegetables.
Another nice thing about this cookbook is that it was photographed by our dear friend Ashley McLaughlin. We couldn’t be happier to get our hands on the amazing work of two of our favorite people. Congratulations Gena on an incredible book: we know it will be dog-eared for years to come!
Want more about lentils?
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Power Plates: 100 Balanced Vegan One Dish Meals by Gena Hamshaw
This healthy baked sweet potato recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, plant based, dairy free, naturally sweetened and sugar free.
The description
This Healthy Baked Sweet Potato with Moroccan Lentils is a nutritionally balanced one-dish vegan meal that’s delicious too.
- 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes, washed
- 1 cup dried brown or Pardina lentils, rinsed
- 1 tbsp Olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 small white or yellow onion
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 1 15 ounces diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1⁄4 teaspoon Cinammon
- 1⁄2 teaspoon sweet peppers
- 1 tbsp Harissa paste or 1 teaspoon ground chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 cups tightly packed baby spinach
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup (optional)
- ½ cup Lemon tahini sauce for serving
- Fresh cilantro for serving
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Bake the Sweet Potatoes: Head to Quick Baked Sweet Potato or Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes.
- Meanwhile, cook the lentils according to package directions. Drain well.
- Chop the onion. Chop the garlic.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add cumin and cook, stirring constantly, until the seeds begin to burst, 1-2 minutes. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the lentils, ginger, cinnamon, paprika, harissa, and salt, then stir in the spinach. Cook, stirring frequently, until wilted, adding 1⁄4 cup water to prevent sticking (about 1 to 2 minutes). Stir in pomegranate molasses, if using. Taste and season to taste.
- Prepare the lemon tahini sauce.
- Using a fork, mash the flesh of the sweet potatoes while they are still in their skins. Place two halves on each serving plate and garnish with a generous scoop of lentils. Serve immediately, with a drizzle of tahini sauce and torn coriander leaves.
Remarks
Reproduced with permission from Power Plates, Copyright © 2018 by Gena Hamshaw. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
- Category: main course
- Method: Cook
- Kitchen: Moroccan
Keywords: Healthy Baked Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Potato Recipes, Moroccan Recipes, Tahini Sauce, Vegan Dinner Ideas, Vegan Dinner Recipes, Plant Based Dinner Ideas
Looking for vegan recipes?
Looking for vegan dinner recipes? Aside from this healthy baked sweet potato recipe, here are some of our favorite easy vegan dinner recipes:
