Spicy Sweet Potato and Lentils

Fill a bowl with some of this delicious Spicy Sweet Potato and Lentils, a delicious combination of spice and sweetness for a hearty healthy meal.

In the winter time when it's cold, I tend to eat a lot more meat-free meals, My pantry is often raided for pulses and lentils because they are great for making soups, curries or chilli's etc for comforting food that you crave in those chilly winter months.

Not just that, but they are super cheap and really great for bulking out a dish, and making it more filling and high satiety.

You don't need complicated ingredients either, just a simple blend of spices can really add delicious flavour in combination with some healthy vegetables.

Sweet Potato is a perfect addition to this Spicy Sweet Potato and Lentils, it adds a lovely natural sweetness to the heat from the chilli's for an amazing flavour on the palate.

The key to adding the sweet potato to this dish is to cook it first. I just pierce and microwave for 5 mins, allow it too cool and then you can scoop out all the flesh and mash. What that does is creates a delicious curry sauce with all the additional ingredients, instead of if you were to add it in cubed.

I prefer to use brown lentils in this dish, a chunkier variety of lentil because when cooked they hold their shape. Red lentils are more for dhals and soups. So for this Spicy Sweet Potato and Lentils, I recommend using either green or brown lentils.

Perfect just as it is in a bowl, or pair up with some rice and vegetables of choice for a more filling meal.

If you end up buying a bag of brown or green lentils to make this Spicy Sweet Potato and Lentils, you may end up thinking, what am I going to use the rest of these lentils on?

Luckily I have these perfect recipes for you to try:

• Spicy Lentils and Spinach
• Sausage and Lentil Casserole
• Coconut Green Lentil Curry
• Lentil Shepherds Pie
• Lentil Bolognese
• Bacon and Lentil Soup
• Roasted Butternut Squash and Lentil Curry
• Sweet Potato, Vegetable and Lentil Chilli

all suitable for freezing too, so great when you need to get some batch cooking underway to fill your freezer for some grab and go meals.

This Spicy Sweet Potato and Lentils can also be cooked either stove top or in a pressure cooker like an Instant Pot.

I love my Instant Pot. It is a 7in1 cooker, which slow cooks, pressure cooks, saute's, has settings for soup, chilli, rice, porridge and even makes yoghurt (I haven't tried that yet).

HOW CAN I ADD A ⅓ VEG TO THIS SPICY SWEET POTATO AND LENTILS?

I could have bulked this spicy sweet potato and lentils out with some vegetables, but I wanted the sweet potato to be dominant as a flavour and felt adding other vegetables would take that away. So instead serve this delicious dish with a side of vegetables of your choice. I served mine with rice and some slices of zucchini (courgette), which I just cooked in a pan for a few minutes seasoned with salt and black pepper to give some colour. Another option would be to ditch the rice and serve with this Roasted Cauliflower Rice. If you have only ever tried cauli rice cooked in a microwave and really didn't like it, you must try it cooked this way. Roasting it gives it such a delicious flavour.

WHAT KITCHEN ITEMS DO I NEED TO MAKE THIS SPICY SWEET POTATO AND LENTILS?

• Deep Saucepan or Instant Pot
• Kitchen Scales
• Measuring Jug
• Measuring Spoons
• Wooden Spoon
• Santoku Knife (perfect knife for chopping veg)
• Chopping Board
• Microwave

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