This dish is like a Mediterranean cruise! It has so many of the intense flavours of the regional cuisines. Everyone – vegetarians and non-vegetarians – seem to love this dish. The recipe is highly adaptable to whatever you’ve got on hand so feel free to improvise. To great effect, I’ve used a feta/yogurt mousse when I haven’t had tahini or hummus on hand. You can easily use a pre-made salsa as a topping, if you choose. The whole dish comes together in about a half an hour with prep time taking only about five minutes.
INGREDIENTS
4 medium sized sweet potatoes (I microwave them for a few minutes to make it safer to cut them lengthwise)
15 ounces chickpeas, either canned, or prepared from dry chickpeas
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp each, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, and paprika (smoked or regular)
1 tsp of salt, and/or lemon juice
TOPPING
½ cup of diced tomato
½ cup of minced parsley
2 TBSP diced red onion
Lemon juice, to taste, as a dressing (I sometimes add a little olive oil and rice or wine vinegar)
DRESSING
⅓ cup tahini or hummus
½ lemon yielding 1 TSBP of lemon juice
3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
water, to thin the tahini or hummus, if required
Sea salt to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
For easy clean-up, line a baking sheet with parchment
Cut sweet potatoes in half, lengthwise
Rinse chickpeas then toss chickpeas in olive oil and seasonings
Rub the sweet potatoes in the same oil and seasonings
Place sweet potatoes face side down on baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven
After about 15 or 20 minutes, add the seasoned chickpeas to the baking sheet
(You can bake the chickpeas on a separate sheet if you choose)
While potatoes are baking, blend lemon juice and garlic into the tahini or hummus until it’s thin enough to pour; adjust with water (or more lemon juice!)
Squeeze lemon juice over the tomato, parsley, red onion mixture
Bake for about 25 minutes
When the sweet potatoes are fork-tender, remove from oven and plate
Spoon the roasted chickpeas onto the potatoes
Spoon tomato/parsley mixture over the potatoes and chickpeas
Drizzle with the tahini or hummus dressing
Serve hot
NOTES: ensure that the chickpeas don’t overbake; five to ten minutes at 400 degrees ought to be enough to heat them without desiccating them
Improvise away!