Hey Sweeties,
I love nights in on my own –not so much at the weekend but during the week where I make the most of having free reign of the kitchen and can cook more of the food and ingredients I enjoy that I have to often abandon owing to having a slightly vegetable fussy Boyfriend! But in fairness, vegetables aside, the sort of food I love doing for myself don’t really cater for the stomach of a man. I do eat meat but where possible I go without it and Ian bless him wants something a bit more substantial for his dinner understandably.
I have done a couple of recipes on here before and my favourite kind of cooking is the experimental kind whereby I go to the fridge, see what I have leftover to eat, and working out some combinations –some tried and tested, others a bit more risky (but if you have a relatively good palate and understanding of flavours, you rarely create a monstrosity). Tonight I fancied some sweet potato jackets but no idea what to have with them. Usually I have a batch of ratatouille in the fridge but the last was used up a few nights ago and I didn’t want Baked Beans so I reached for the mushrooms… then I noticed some cherry tomatoes… and then most excitedly I noticed a jar of opened pesto, yeah baby!
Here’s what I did:
- Depending on the size of the sweet potato(s) cook in the microwave for 3-4 minutes on each side.
- Once softened, put in the (pre-heated) oven until crispy on the outside –time varies as do ovens but on the whole this can take 20 minutes or more depending on how you like your potato.
- While the potato(s) are cooking, chop a handful of mushrooms and some cherry tomatoes –I like to keep them quite chunky for this.
- Put a little oil in a pan and turn on the heat. Add the chopped mushrooms and tomatoes and cook.
- Once they have softened add a couple of teaspoons of pesto and stir together.
- Take the sweet potato(s) out of the oven and open as you would a normal jacket potato. You can add a bit of butter if you want to (I don’t personally as I find the potato soft & sweet enough). Add the pesto topping and season accordingly. Finish with a light grating of cheese.