FAUX-MEXICAN BAKED SWEET POTATO

Last spring, we planted sweet potatoes for the first time, not really knowing what to expect. Even so, we definitely didn’t expect THIS.

It was the mother of all conjoined sweet potatoes, so enormous that I couldn’t even dig it out on my own. Eventually The Roommate had to come to my aid, using what I presume was some kind of power tool to unmoor this mutant. Eventually, I managed to separate them, but was still left with the problem of what to do with the one mega sweet potato. It’s just…so much sweet potato. Like many people, I like to ignore my problems, so Godzilla lay dormant, wrapped in newspaper, for months.

Until today! We had a lunch guest, and it seemed like the perfect excuse to finally use the monster, having put it off for long enough. We had planned on making smoky barbecue pork belly as well, and I wanted something a little more three dimensional in flavour to complement the simplicity of the meat. Also, I’ve been craving Mexican food recently so I decided I’d experiment with making a pseudo-Mexican baked sweet potato. If you also have a gigantic 5kg sweet potato, this dish on its own can feed your entire family as a main.

I estimated that it would take roughly 3 to 4 hours for this nugget to cook, so the first step was to wrap the sweet potato in aluminium foil (this thing required several layers) and get it baking in the oven at 180C (350F). A normal-sized sweet potato would take around an hour or so, which still leaves you plenty of time to prep the rest of the dish as it cooks.

Given the enormity of this particular sweet potato, I wanted a dressing to balance out the starchiness. I’d been eyeing the recently revitalized coriander in the garden, and used a small bunch of the herb along with some sour cream, chilli powder and lime juice to make a quick dressing. In hindsight I think I would have also added some crushed garlic, but only because…I love garlic. A lot. Maybe too much.

Beyond this, the rest of the prep is fairly minimal. One brown or white onion gets finely diced up, and some garlic gets minced.

Okay.

The garlic.

I know many of you feel the same way about this: recipes that call for “1 or 2 cloves of garlic”. WHY?? What is even the point? Personally, when it comes to garlic, more is more, and I don’t mean more of those tiny, hard to peel ones either. Big bulbs, big cloves, and as a general rule of thumb, I always at LEAST double what the recipe calls for. Okay triple. Don’t judge me. However, it is important to note that if you’re not cooking the garlic, then do stick to what the recipe recommends, as raw garlic is incredibly strong and overpowering.

Anyway.

Onion and garlic (for the record, I used 6 cloves) go in the pan with some olive oil on medium-high heat until golden brown, and then 2 cans of black beans (drained) get added, along with some salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the beans have slightly softened. When the sweet potato is ready, unwrap them carefully and cut them in half lengthwise. Scoop the black bean mixture onto the sweet potato, then grate some cheese of your choice over the top. I used some matured cheddar cheese, or Tasty cheese as they call it in Australia (I don’t know why it’s called Tasty, but in fairness, it is. But so are other cheeses so…I still don’t know). And when I say some cheese, I mean a lot of cheese. But not too much. Because there’s no such thing as too much cheese. Return the lot to the oven for about 10-15 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbling, then sprinkle some sliced spring onions on top and serve with the dressing. (The word “cheese” has appeared 8 times in this paragraph.)

(I mentioned we also had pork belly, this is what it looked like about 2 hours before it was ready)

Ingredients:
1 cup sour cream (or you can substitute Greek yoghurt)
2 tsp crushed garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp chilli powder (or more if you like)
1 small bunch coriander, finely chopped
4-5 sweet potatoes (or 1 giant 5kg sweet potato)
2 cans black beans
1 large brown or white onion, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
3-4 spring onions, sliced
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Wrap the sweet potatoes in foil and bake for about 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, combine the sour cream, crushed garlic, lime juice, chilli powder and coriander in a small bowl. Mix well, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until soft and golden brown, then add the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Then add the black beans and continue to cook until the beans have softened somewhat, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside if sweet potatoes are not yet ready.
4. When the sweet potatoes are done, unwrap them carefully and cut in half lengthwise. Spoon some of the black bean mixture onto each piece and top generously with the cheese. Return the sweet potatoes to the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and nicely browned.
5. Remove the sweet potatoes and garnish with the spring onion and some dressing.