Baked Sweet Potatoes with Avocado Dip

Baked sweet potatoes are a treat!

Snacking on sweet potatoes can be healthy and delicious especially if you have an oven. We all know junk food is bad and so if you have this sweet potato option, at least you won't feel guilty for eating extra calories. At least the humble sweet potato is good for you since you get most of the minerals your body needs from it.

Sweet potatoes were looking at me from the kitchen counter today and I was feeling adventurously hungry. So I thought of trying out something a friend of mine made for me once when I was still living in St. Andrews and give it an extra health kick. Besides, I needed some extra carbs to power my day. Eating very little animal protein (seriously, just maybe an egg a week or half a can of tuna) makes me hungry all the time. But if that's the only price I have to pay to staying healthy, I can manage! I just have to have enough carbs and some time to prepare food I can snack on all day. These baked sweet potatoes are definitely going to my list of snacking options.

I found an avocado in the fridge and decided to experiment with it as well. I wanted to make Guacamole but I lacked some ingredients so I ended up making a similar dip. The dip gives it a delicious twist as it mixes with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes. 

Baked sweet potatoes with avocado dip recipe

Ingredients (for 2 persons)

For the sweet potatoes:

500g sweet potatoes

1 tbsp high-oleic cooking oil

salt

pepper

turmeric

For the dip:

1 avocado

1 clove garlic finely chopped

1 tsp lime or lemon juice

salt

pepper

turmeric

tabasco sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (fan).

2. Wash the sweet potatoes and cut it into 1cm thin sticks leaving their skin on.

3. Put the sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl and pour in 1 tbsp of the cooking oil.

4. Add a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper and a dash of turmeric. Mix the ingredients thoroughly with your hands until all the sweet potato sticks are covered in oil.

5. Put a baking sheet in the oven on the baking tray and put the sweet potatoes on them.

6. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes.

7. While waiting for the sweet potatoes to cook, prepare the dip.

8. Cut the avocado in half, take out the flesh using a spoon and put it in a bowl.

9. Mash the avocado with a fork (or masher).

10. Add the chopped garlic, lime juice, some salt, pepper, turmeric and a dash of tabasco sauce.

11. Mix and serve with the sweet potatoes once it is done.

I have to warn you though that the sweet potatoes get too soft if you slice them too thin and cook them too long so you have to check whether

your sweet potatoes are already cooked at 15 minutes or 17. I guess it is different based on the kind of sweet potatoes you get. The normal orange ones

seem to cook slightly faster. Since it is baked and not fried, the sweet potatoes are softer.

The health bit

Sweet potatoes are known to contain vitamins and minerals vital to our health, some of the heat-sensitive vitamins get lost as it cooks but most of the minerals remain. So if you are looking for a snack, why not make it healthy and use sweet potatoes instead of the regular ones? And use less oil and bake it instead of frying it. Your body will appreciate it. 

I added a dash of turmeric because of its anti-inflammatory ingredients. Using turmeric regularly has enormous benefits and can help prevent dementia and all other sorts of diseases caused by inflammation. The good news is that you don't need much of it as the body can absorb only small amounts and it can do that by combining it with some black pepper. Turmeric doesn't have a strong taste and so you can use it everywhere. You will notice that I always add this spice (and black pepper) to almost all my recipes, particularly because of its benefits. I'm a fan or raw garlic and I cannot say enough praises for its health properties and so I also added a bit in the dip. I can imagine how powerfully healthy the combination of raw garlic and turmeric compounds could be! Enjoy.