Smokey chipotle black bean filled sweet potatoes topped with a creamy feta sauce brings warmth and comfort when it’s cold and rainy outside.

Dinner at our house these days can be all four of us, four plus extras or just my husband and me.  I have no control over this from day to day so I move in hourly timeframes ready for updates.  I love all the varieties.  Having four plus extras is one of my favourites but I really don’t mind either way, as I know they are all happy off being independent souls.  So it’s either a feast or rich pickings from the day before.

Because everyone’s plans can be so transient with husband away travelling with work or I am out on a freelance job or plus/minus the boys, I tend to cook as if we are all together anyway.  This means I cook once – eat twice or pop spare portions in the freezer.  Truth be told one of our boys has hollow legs and tends to eat two dinners anyway.

Nothing is wasted and the secret to this new phase in our lives is to make every meal a feast whether it’s solo dinning or feeding the whole friendship group.

This sweet potato dinner fills all the feeding requirements in our house as the fillings can be made in advance, not that they are lengthy anyway but cooking in stages always works for me if I am working from home.  Also everything can easily be kept in the fridge to eat the next day.

How do you cope with feeding the household?

Smokey chipotle black bean filled sweet potatoes topped with a creamy feta sauce brings warmth and comfort when it’s cold and rainy outside.

Chipotle Black Bean Filled Sweet Potatoes with Feta

Chipotle Bean Filling:
1 teaspoon oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large red pepper finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large (or 2 small) bunch of coriander, chop stalks and leaves – place in separate piles
1 jar of good quality pasta sauce
2 tins of black beans, drained
1 tsp chipotle paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Black pepper and salt

Topping:
200g feta cheese, crumbed
200ml greek yoghurt
½ clove garlic, grated
Honey
Black pepper and salt
2 teaspoons sumac

Place potatoes in a preheated oven at 180°C/Gas Mark 4/350°F for about 45 minutes – 1 hour depending on size of potatoes.

In a large saucepan, heat oil and then fry the onion, red pepper and garlic until starting to soften which should be around 5-6 minutes.  Add the coriander stalks, chipotle sauce, cumin and continue to fry for a further 4 minutes.

Add the pasta sauce, black beans and rinse out the pasta sauce jar with about 100ml of water.  Add the sugar, salt and pepper and cook until bubbling.  Reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes until reduced slightly.

To make the topping, mix the feta, yoghurt, garlic, honey, salt and pepper together.  Set aside.

When the potatoes are ready, split open and add 2 large spoonfuls of the black bean sauce over then top with 1 spoonful of the feta mixture.
Finish with a sprinkling of the sumac and the chopped coriander leaves.