Baked sweet potato with feta cheese, spinach and chilli pumpkin seeds

Serves: 4
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 1 hr 0 mins

Ingredients

  • <ul> <li>Serves 4</li> <li>4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil</li> <li>Salt and pepper</li> <li>2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed and halved lengthways</li> <li>60g butter</li> <li>2 garlic cloves, crushed</li> <li>A pinch of hot chilli powder</li> <li>85g pumpkin seeds</li> <li>200g spinach, washed</li> <li>200g feta cheese</li> </ul>

This is my funky take on the humble baked potato, brilliant on its own or partnered up with crispy roast chicken or juicy lamb chops.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas 4.

Drizzle the olive oil onto a roasting tray and season with a little salt and pepper. Place the sweet potatoes, cut-side down on the oil, cover with foil and put in the oven to roast for 40 to 65 minutes.

The cooking time will depend on the size of the potato, so make sure to check them. Once you can pierce a skewer easily through the middle of the sweet potato it is cooked.

When the potatoes are almost cooked, melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat and add the garlic and chilli powder, followed by the pumpkin seeds. Cook the seeds gently for five to six minutes, keeping an eye on the pan to make sure they don’t burn.

Add the spinach and wilt for two minutes. Taste and season as desired.

To serve, place the spinach on top of the sweet potato and then crumble the feta generously over the top.

Paul Flynn

Paul Flynn

Paul Flynn is a chef, restaurateur and contributor to The Irish Times. He and his wife, Máire, run the Tannery restaurant and cookery school in Dungarvan, Co Waterford