Easy Chickpea-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

These super easy Chickpea-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes are perfect for a quickie, satisfying, vegan meal. My speedy 5-minute chickpeas are paired with creamy garlic hummus and a sticky-sweet stuffed sweet potato for a pretty much perfect easy meal.

If you are a sweet potato lover like me, you will want to add this recipe to your go-to meal rotation!...

Easy Stuffed Sweet Potato

I have a few stuffed sweet potato recipes here on the blog, but this one is by far my most easy + simple! You honestly do not need much to make a stuffed sweet potato and that is what I wanted to highlight in this recipe. Sure, you can get fancy with toppings, or just keep it simple like I did today.

The one thing you cannot skimp on though....

Oven-Baked Sweet Potatoes

For this recipe, oven-baked sweet potatoes are a must.

But just FYI, I don't always oven-bake my sweet potatoes for recipes. When I'm in a hurry to make my favorite sweet potato soup, sometimes I will boil a peeled and chopped sweet potato. If I am really in a lazy mood for a recipe, I will even sometimes microwave a sweet potato. (That's rare, but it does happen!)

But hands down, the best way to prepare a sweet potato for pretty much any recipe is to oven bake it. All you need is a bit of time - about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how large your potato is.

For these Chickpea-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, oven-baking makes it work. That sticky caramelized taste and texture that develops when you oven-bake a sweet potato, is exactly what anchors this entire recipe. Basically your meal is a baked sweet potato .... with a few savory toppings.

How to Bake a Sweet Potato

It's easy! You can oven-bake for these Chickpea-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes or any recipe you'd like. You can even serve an oven-baked sweet potato with nothing else at all! Here are the steps..

1. Before. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line the bottom of the oven with foil in case the potato drips sticky syrup - it probably will! Foil allows for much easier clean-up.
2. Prep. Scrub your sweet potato with a veggie brush as you rinse under warm or hot water. Remove any long stringy bits. Dry the potato with a clean towel.
3. Vent. Poke a few holes into the surface of your potato using either a fork or knife. This allows steam to escape.
4. Bake. Place the potato in a 450 degree oven and bake for 40-60 minutes or until tender and baked through.
5. Rest. Allow the potato to rest a bit before handling because it will be hot! This also allows for easier peeling of the potato skin if you are using just the sweet potato flesh for a recipe. If making chickpea-stuffed sweet potatoes, resting will make it easier for you to handle the potato.

Hummus

The hummus in these Chickpea-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes adds the moisture in this recipe. If you don't like hummus or want to skip it for any reason, you can totally do that. You just need to sub with something else that will add some moisture and even healthy fats to your meal.

You could add 2 tablespoon vegan butter, melted into the sliced open sweet potato. Or you could just add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Or even Vegenaise - if you are just as obsessed with it as I am.

For the hummus, you can use homemade or store-bought. My preference is a garlic flavor, but any flavor will work.

Greens

I like to add a lot of greens to serve these potatoes. I even like to add a side dish of chopped leafy greens so I can keep adding them as I eat. Kale, spinach, parsley and chard are great options to try. You can use raw leafy greens or skillet-cooked.

Chickpeas

You can use a variety of chickpea recipe to stuff these Chickpea-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, but these are my favorites..

• 5-Minute Skillet Chickpeas
• Buffalo Chickpeas
• West African Chickpeas

Can I Use Other Beans?

Yes! You could actually make the recipes above using another bean like navy or black beans, but the flavor and texture will vary. And since most other beans are a bit mushier that chickpeas, you want to be aware of that when you prepare them.

You could even use my baked beans to stuff sweet potatoes!

Get fancy with toppings..

If you want to get a bit fancier with toppings, you can add these ingredients...

• diced avocado
• smoky paprika
• EVOO
• pumpkin seeds
• chopped greens
• chopped herbs
• cashew cheese
• roasted or steamed broccoli
• tempeh bacon bits
• vegan Parmesan cheese
• diced green apple (really!!)
• hemp seeds
• chopped nuts like walnuts, almonds, pecans..
• diced tomato

These stuffed sweet potatoes I did a while back show off some fancier toppings..

• Sweet potatoes with avocado (love adding avocado!)
• BBQ black bean stuffed sweet potatoes
• cheesy broccoli stuffed sweet potatoes
• Maple chili bean stuffed sweet potatoes
• kale + quinoa + mashed bean stuffed sweet potatoes

So with that, let's get to this super simple recipe for Chickpea-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes...