Stuffed sweet potatoes

Eating your vegetables doesn't mean resigning to a lifetime of salads.  You can take those same salad themes- Greek, Southwestern, anything really- and transform it into toppings for roasted sweet potatoes, or zucchini nachos, for example.  These stuffed sweet potatoes adapted from Averie Cooks are a delicious- and healthier way- to get our Mexican food fix.  Ole!

STUFFED SWEET POTATOES

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

4 sweet potatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

kernels from 2 ears of corn
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheese

Scallions, sliced

1 jalapeno, seeded and thinly sliced

Cilantro, chopped

Avocado Crema:
1 large ripe avocado

1/2 cup sour cream
Juice of 1 lime
pinch of salt, to taste

Instructions

Sweet Potato and Filling - Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Pierce potato with fork a few times so steam can escape, and cook until fork tender (45 minutes - 1 hour).

Slice roasted sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, and hollow out a center column of each half with a spoon. Don't remove any flesh, just redistribute it so the center column is a bit shallower to make room for the filling, and there's more flesh built up around the edges.

Place the halves on a non-stick baking sheet. Top each potato half with black beans, corn, salt and pepper, and shredded cheese.

Set oven to Broil and cook potatoes for about 3 minutes, or just until cheese begins to melt and is bubbly. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

While the potatoes cool, make the avocado crema.

Avocado Crema - In a food processor or blender, combine the avocado, sour cream, lime juice, and salt to taste- blend until smooth and creamy. If mixture is thick, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until desired consistency is reached. Garnish potatoes with scallions, jalapeno, avocado crema and cilantro- and enjoy!!