Tex-Mex Stuffed Sweet Potato

I don't love cooking meat in the summer unless I BBQ. Living in Amsterdam makes it tough to BBQ, so we have been going 'meat-free' for much of this month.

I loved this fun, tasty and fresh Tex-Mex inspired stuffed sweet potato recipe that is meat-free, sugar-free and gluten-free.

What You'll Need (serves four):

• 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes. I know these can come large in North America, so if they are monstrous, just use two (1/2 per person)
• 1 baking tray lined in tinfoil
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 white onion
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Green onion
• 1 cup black beans
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/2 package of your favourite, gluten-free taco seasoning
• Shredded cheese (I used a spicy hard cheese that I grated very thinly using a Parmesan grater - this way it looks like you have more cheese when you actually eat less!)

What You'll Do:

• Pre-heat your oven to 210C (375F)
• Poke your sweet potatoes so steam can be released when cooking
• Bake for 45 minutes or until really tender (You can also microwave your potatoes for around 10 minutes, ensuring you puncture them before cooking to release steam. I prefer baking as they come out with a much nicer texture)
• While the potatoes are baking, prep your veggies!
• Dice your red pepper and 1/2 your onion and saute using your olive oil until lightly browned
• Mix your taco seasoning into your fat-free Greek yogurt and set aside in the fridge
• Dice your avocado and set aside 
• Dice your green onion and set aside
• Shred your cheese and set aside (keep cool so your cheese doesn't stick together)
• Dice your tomato, other half of your onion, cilantro and add together with some salt and pepper to make a salsa fresca (dry salsa)
• Rinse your black beans and set aside
• Once your potatoes are nice and soft, cut them in half (watch your hands as they are hot!) and load on the toppings!

 
This is a fairly quick, super tasty alternative to tacos or baked potatoes. I hope you like them as much as we do!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2 (so colourful!)
Taste: 2
Ease: 1.5 (if you microwave your taters, this would also be a 2)

My Favourite Dukan Friendly Marinade

You eat a lot of meat on the Dukan diet. For someone who is neither here nor there about meat and can easily go without it, eating it all the time has been a bit of a challenge.
To spice things up, literally, here is a wonderful meat marinade you can use on chicken, lean beef, turkey breast, or on your vegetables in a stir fry.

What You'll Need:

• 3 Tbsp low-sodium, gluten-free soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp powdered sweetener, I use Ideal. You can also use a brown-sugar sweetener, if you can find it...the Netherlands does not seem to have it
• 1/2 clove of crushed garlic (this is optional)
• 1 tsp chili paste, I use the Conimex Sambal Oelek kind because there aren't many crazy, non-natural ingredients used, and its readily available at the neighbourhood Albert Heijn

What You'll Do:
Because this is a marinade, you can mix all the ingredients together and let your meat of choice sit in it, covered in plastic wrap, to soak, refrigerated in the flavour for a few hours, or, what I like to do if I am making poultry is this:

• Dice raw poulrty into equal-sized pieces (if you put your meat in the freezer for 45 minutes beforehand, it makes it a lot easier to cut!)
• Brown the meat on both sides in a non-stick frying pan
• Pour in the fully mixed marinade into the non-stick frying pan with the browned meat
• Let simmer until the meat is fully cooked and the marinade has almost all been soaked up 
• Voila! 

This makes perfect stir-fry meat to add into your Dukan-approved vegetables.

You can also use this marinade as the sauce for your vegetables - by pouring over top and allowing the vegetables to soak up the flavour. If I use it as a vegetable sauce, I will add a little water, maybe 1/3 cup so the vegetables have something to cook down inside.

You can also eliminate the garlic if it plays tricks on you, and just stick with the chili paste.

STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1 (Its brown and chunky...hardly magazine spread worthy)
Taste: 2
Ease: 2