Budget Friendly and Loaded Sweet Potato Wedges

 

This nourishing dish is a simple, inexpensive mid-week meal with Middle Eastern flavours, or it can have more of a Mexican influence depending on what you substitute or add. It's a recipe that is extremely versatile and only limited by your imagination. I placed the mince filling on a bed of lettuce both for extra nutrition and appearance, however corn chips as a base, yes, I am thinking Mexican nachos now, would really bring this dish to another level if you are cooking for children or extra adults. Who doesn't love  a corn chip? If you are adding corn chips, add some drained sweet corn to the mince or add it separately, and layer it up. Hidden vegetables are very achievable here and always important for our health, I love them. Please see my notes below.

This recipe is adapted from a Coles supermarket recipe booklet, where I know, they are trying to not only give us ideas but also encourage us to buy more ingredients. However, this recipe is very versatile, and extra ingredients can be left out or added dependent on your budget. 

Prep: 5 minutes

Cook: 35 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

350 g sweet potato, just cut up into long wedges

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

1 medium zucchini, finely grated

260 g lean beef mince

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tbs ground cumin

140 g no-added-salt tomato paste

3 cups light Greek-style natural yoghurt

200g cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 bunch coriander, leaves washed and picked

Pomegranate molasses (optional)

Crushed walnuts or pecans for garnish (optional)

lettuce leaves (optional)

Method:

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Preheat your oven to 180 deg. C/160 deg. C.

Measure out half of the oil (1 tsp) and coat the potato in the oil. Spread the potato over the lined tray. 

Bake sweet potato for 20 minutes, turning halfway through until golden-brown and hopefully crispy at the edges.

Cook the Mince filling:

Add the remaining oil to a large frying pan over a medium heat. Cook the onion and the zucchini for 5 minutes until tender. Add more oil if needed.

Add the mince to the vegetables and cook, breaking up the lumps with a spoon until cooked through.

Now add the coriander and cumin and stir to combine. Add the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes until the meat sauce is thickened.

Top the wedges with the mince mixture, a little yoghurt and the halved tomatoes.

I also like to  garnish the yoghurt with a swirl of pomegranate molasses.

Sprinkle over some chopped walnuts, toast them if you wish.

Chop the coriander and sprinkle over the top of everything and serve with the remaining yoghurt on the side.

Cook's notes:

• Add extra Pomegranate Molasses as a finishing touch.

• I sometimes cook up 500-520 g of the mince, doubling the other ingredients and freeze half of it for another time. This becomes a really easy mid-week meal, and buying mince in bulk is cheaper, easing the strain on our budgets.
• The second time I cooked this, I didn't have any zucchini, so I added some finely chopped cabbage. It tasted great.
• If you are trying to include some hidden vegetables into your cooking, for both adults and children, feel free to add other chopped vegetables such as capsicum or even cabbage to the mince, and add another layer of garden peas between the mince and the yoghurt. Peas add colour as well. Most kids love peas. 
• Thinking of making this more Mexican for a change? Add corn chips as a base, add sweet corn to the mince or as a separate layer, substitute light sour cream for the yoghurt, and top with some Mexican salsa, coriander and the halved cherry tomatoes. 

I hope you have some fun with this dish, I did. 

We are just back from holidays in Cairns, and as always now that I've tried reconnecting my laptop to the large monitor I've had a few problems with it today. So I'm not being as wordy as normal during this post. Did I hear a sigh of relief from you, ha, ha. Needless to say, it's time to start preparing dinner. Some impro will be required with some chicken legs, let's see what happens.

I spotted this beautiful red flowered vine when I was out walking in Cairns. I've never seen it before. I tried to clear most of the dead palm fronds out of the way, with limited success. 

Warm wishes

Pauline