Chickpeas are cooked up lighting fast in a skillet with red bell pepper chunks and Middle Eastern spices before being stuffed into juicy baked sweet potatoes and drizzled in rich and creamy tahini falafel sauce.
Okay, sothis is the laziest version of falafel I could come up with. There's no topping this one. Come to think of it, the laziest version of just about any recipe I can come up with probably involves stuffing the main ingredient into a sweet potato in some form or another.
I've always been big on making a meal of sweet potatoes, they just weren't always that healthy. Actually, my sweet potato dinner of my twenties was pretty much this: a big old baked spud with buckets and buckets of butter and brown sugar, because, you know, sweet potatoes on their own aren't sweet enough, right?
So wrong! In fact, I've learned that I actually prefer the sweetness of sweet potatoes complimented by savory flavors. In this case I was inspired by these sweet potato falafel burgers. Or maybe I had a hankering for the burgers but got lazy. So I decided to shove the potato in the oven, shove my falafel materials into a skillet, and voila, this thing was born.
It was actually a totally different experience from the burger, but awesome in a whole new way. T
here's definitely a special kind of satisfaction that comes from tearing into a juicy (and yes, the good ones are juicy) baked sweet potato, and that satisfaction explodes exponentially when that sweet potato is filled with good stuff like spices and chickpeas and topped with rich tahini sauce.
If you're a person who generally finds falafel too dry, but enjoys the flavors, you'll probably be into these potatoes. If you like that little crunch that falafel normally comes with (and how could you not?), sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on your potato, like I did.
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Falafel Spiced Skillet Chickpea Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes
For the Tahini Falafel Sauce
- 2 tbsp. tahini
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove minced
- salt to taste
- 2-4 tbsp. water
For the Chickpea Filling
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- ½ small onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ½ red bell pepper diced
- 1 cup cooked or canned chickpeas drained, rinsed well and patted dry with a paper towel
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- ½ tsp. ground coriander
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3-4 tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro
For Serving
- toasted sesame seeds
- fresh cilantro
- hot sauce
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400º.
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While sweet potatoes bake, whisk sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, thinning with as much water as needed.
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Scrub the sweet potatoes and pierce each one a few times with a knife.
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Bake the sweet potatoes until the skin is lightly crisp and center is soft and easily pierced with a fork, 40-60 minutes depending on size.
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When sweet potatoes are almost finished baking, coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil and plate it over medium heat.
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Add the onion and sauté until softened, 5 minutes. Add the garlic and bell pepper. Sauté 1 minute more.
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Add chickpeas, cumin and coriander. Raise heat to medium-high and cook 2 minutes more.
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Add the lemon juice, salt, pepper and cilantro. Flip a few times to incorporate, and remove from heat.
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Transfer the sweet potatoes to plates and cut them open. Stuff with chickpea filling and top with tahini sauce, sesame seeds, fresh cilantro and hot sauce.
This sounds lovely. Going to give this a go. thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
Thanks Simon! Enjoy!!
Chickpeas and sweet potatoes.....two of my favorite foods. It'll be a nice change combine them in a new way. Thanks!
Made this for dinner tonight... YUM!!! I didn't have chick peas so used kidney beans instead, but it was still delicious!!
What an easy and comforting dish for a Tuesday night!
That looks amazing!!! What a filling deliciousness!!!
I made this tonight. Super simple, but really really good. My husband was also surprised at how good it was. We topped ours with a handful of raw baby kale. So tasty.
I don't think I've commented before, but your site has quickly become my go to. Your cooking is just my style.
I'm glad you liked it! Baby kale sounds like a delicious addition!
I was going to make some sweet potato n chickpea felafels and was glad I'd found this recipe as, like you I couldn't be bothered to mash everything up. I thinned the sauce out with olive oil as well as water and lemon juice, and used butter in the sweet spuds, but Man, it came out well!. An easily prepared and really tasty supper.
*Just discovered this is a veganblog, so 'scuse the butter!
No worries. :) I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks so much for popping back over to let me know!
I have no doubt this is divine!! I have a feeling this same recipe but stuffed in a roasted eggplant, (in place the sweet potato) would also be incredibly delicious ! gotta try em both :) thanks!!
This would be excellent in an eggplant! I hope you enjoy!
Made this a few times now. Delicious!