Sweet potatoes are a secret obsession of mine. I love them so much. My husband gets so irritated with me because I love them that much! A baked sweet potato is so divine smothered in butter and brown sugar. Oh. My. Goodness! I love them! But… I do love sweet potatoes so many different ways because they are so delicious!
Did you know sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A? They’re also a great source of vitamin C, manganese, copper, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6. And even a good source of potassium, dietary fiber, niacin, vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and phosphorus. But, I love them for the delicious flavor… I mean, who doesn’t? Oh, my husband… but I’m pretty sure he’s never even tried a sweet potato!
Try these mouth watering quinoa and spinach stuffed sweet potatoes. If you love sweet potatoes you will love these!
Quinoa & Spinach Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Yields: 4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40
Ingredients:
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 6 handfuls of spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 cup chicken stock or water
- ¼ cup pecans, chopped
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- 2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled (can substitute for feta)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut clean sweet potatoes evenly in half lengthwise and place face down on a baking sheet. Brush on a light layer of olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on the skins. Roast for approximately 30 minutes or until they are tender.
While sweet potatoes are roasting, rinse quinoa under running water and set aside. Bring chicken stock to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour quinoa into the saucepan with the stock and stir. Bring the chicken stock down to a simmer, and allow the quinoa to cook for approximately 15 minutes. It is done when it looks like it has popped and there is no excess liquid.
After quinoa is cooked – place olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped spinach and cook until spinach is wilted (approximately 3-4 minutes). Remove from heat, and stir in cooked quinoa, pecans, cranberries and salt and pepper to taste.
After the sweet potatoes have roasted, use a spoon to press down the center so it is more open for the filling.
Spoon the filling into each sweet potato evenly. Add crumbled goat cheese to each and serve.
These make a very flavorful and healthy side dish for baked chicken or fish. Refrigerate any leftovers – they are excellent the next day.
What’s your favorite way to enjoy sweet potatoes? Comment below and share your ideas with us!
15 responses to “Quinoa & Spinach Stuffed Sweet Potatoes”
I roughly chop sweet potatoes, add a dash of olive oil and cinnamon and pop in the oven at 350 for 20 – 30 minutes. We enjoy it with roasted broccoli and baked salmon.
What a super recipe with lots of flavors and nutrition too sounds like a plan to me
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I plan on trying this one out. It looks delicious.
My dad would go crazy for this dish
Yeah these look awesome!
I like sweet potato in sweet potato pie or simply steamed. I just got some quinoa recently and want to try out this dish.
These sound good
These look pretty tasty and not fattening either..yum
Yum! Honestly I have never had anything else on top of a sweet potato besides a huge scoop of butter and brown sugar/cinnamon. 🙂 This definitely sounds like a lot healthier way to eat one. Thanks for sharing!
I definitely need to make these. I see three of my favorite foods – sweet potatoes, quinoa, and spinach. I’ve loved spinach since I was a kid (yes, I was a strange kid, but then again, my girls all loved broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts since they were little). I only recently discovered quinoa but now buy it in five pound bags through Amazon. As for the sweet potatoes, I could never stand those marshmallow topped canned ones everyone makes for Thanksgiving, so I figured I just didn’t like sweet potatoes. Now I find that they are one of my favorite foods – made just about any way BUT the Thanksgiving casserole. These looks great and would actually make a great dinner for Meatless Monday. Luckily, the daughter who still lives at home is a fan, too, so I’m sure she’d love these.
These look awesome and healthy. I like sweet potatoes too!
I’m making these tonight for meatless Monday. I’ll use veggie broth instead of the chicken stock. That change makes it vegetarian. Substituting non-dairy cheese or omitting it would make them vegan. I’m with you. I can’t get enough sweet potatoes. I only discovered how much I love them recently because the only way anyone made them when I was growing up was with the canned ones loaded with brown sugar and marshmallows served at Thanksgiving. I hate those. But, now I find I love sweet potato fries, cubed and roasted in the oven with a little seasoning (cut some Brussels sprouts in half and roast them with the potatoes, too, or even mix in some regular potatoes). I love using my spiralizer on them and then stir-fry them with a little coconut oil and then use them for dishes like coconut curry or even pasta. To think of all the years I didn’t eat them because the only way I had tried them was a way I don’t like! By the way, they’re great for dogs, too. I microwave them and then after they cool I scoop out the potato and mash it up to add to homemade dog biscuits.
I made these for dinner tonight and just loved them! Since the two sweet potatoes I bought the other day were HUGE (I originally figured I’d cube them and roast them in the oven for dinner later this week but then used them for this), and since I wanted them for main course for meatless Monday, I doubled up everything else. I’m always confused at instructions like “handful”, when it comes to spinach, since I have large hands, so I figured a handful was one cup. The bag I bought was 15 cups, so I used most of it (keeping 2-3 “handfuls” to use later this week – perfect for throwing on top of the frozen Gino’s East deep dish pizza we’re having on Thursday). Anyway, I really loved how this turned out, and with the larger servings, it was perfect for dinner. I opted for vegetable over chicken broth, and used a milder cheese I already had in my fridge. I was thinking that I could cube and roast the sweet potatoes and make this more of a “bowl” for lunch or dinner, too. Sorry for the ramble, but I figured I’d let you know how much we liked this! What a healthy meal, too!
I actually made these the other night. Since the sweet potatoes I had were huge, I doubled the rest of the ingredients and my daughter and I used this as our meal for meatless Monday. We reheated the leftovers for lunch the next day. This does really reheat nicely.
I think I have found what I’m cooking tonight for supper. This looks so good. I will let you know how it turns out.