Baked sweet potatoes stuffed with chickpeas, tomatoes and fried halloumi with a minty tahini sauce! You will love how these flavors come together to make a delicious and easy vegetarian dinner or side dish.
A baked sweet potato is a solid starting point for lunch or a light dinner, and this recipe brings some garlicky chickpeas, tomatoes and fried halloumi to the party. We also have a herby tahini sauce to drizzle on top which is where some extra magic happens.
I love to serve this between two people, in big sweet potatoes, as a main dish. Sometimes with a side of sauteed kale. Split between four smaller sweet potatoes, you would have a lovely side dish to serve with some eggs or a big salad.
Ingredient Notes
- The recipe calls for 2-4 sweet potatoes depending on whether you want this as a main dish or a side dish. You can use up all the filling in two sweet potatoes if they’re pretty big ones, or four if they’re smaller and you just want a side dish sized portion.
- It’s worth using the “good” tomatoes for this, if they’re in season / in budget. The juices add a lot of flavor to the filling.
The Tahini Mint Sauce
Making a sauce always feels like a chore, but without the sauce this is just not the same, so please get the blender out and give this one a try! It’s tahini based with lemon, garlic and herby flavors. So fresh and tasty!
- I use a mix of mint and fresh coriander (cilantro). You could add parsley or basil to the mix, or swap things around a little based on what you have available.
- I use 1 clove of garlic and it’s pretty garlicky. I think it works nicely but cut it down to 1/2 clove if you don’t like too much raw garlic in your face.
Make it Faster
For this recipe I chose to bake the sweet potatoes whole, pop them open and spoon the filling in, like this…
If you wanted to cut about 20 minutes from your prep time, you could bake the sweet potatoes in halves. You would slice them in half lengthways, then brush will oil and bake them face down on a baking tray for about 30 minutes. Like this…
You end up with halves which can simply be topped with the filling. You can see that method in action in this recipe.
What to do with the rest of the halloumi:
This recipe uses one half of a block of halloumi, and the other half will need to be used up pretty quickly once the package is open. Here’s some ideas for other recipes to plan in for the same week which will use up the rest:
- This Halloumi Pizza uses another half block
- This Halloumi Caesar Salad with Yogurt Dressing asks for two blocks of halloumi, which is a very generous halloumi ratio. You could easily make it with one and a half blocks and use the other half for these sweet potatoes.
- This Halloumi Breakfast Hash will also not suffer for reducing the halloumi a little.
- These Halloumi Bagels with Avocado & Pesto is also fairly flexible with amounts, and you can get two decent bagels out of a half block.
Halloumi Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can chickpeas, drained
- 125 g halloumi cheese
- 250 g cherry tomatoes, quartered
Tahini Sauce
- 2 Tbsp tahini
- 10-15 mint leaves
- 2 sprigs coriander, including stems
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 0.5 tsp honey
- 1 clove garlic
- 2-3 Tbsp water, for thinning
Instructions
- First, bake the sweet potatoes. Heat the oven to 200C (400F) and place 2-4 sweet potatoes on a baking tray. Poke a few holes into each of the sweet potatoes, then place in the oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of the sweet potatoes. They are ready when they dent easily when pressed.2 large sweet potatoes
- While the sweet potatoes are cooking, make the tahini sauce by adding all ingredients into a blender (starting with 1 tablespoon of water) and pulsing until it is smooth and creamy. Add additional water as needed to create the consistency you prefer.2 Tbsp tahini, 10-15 mint leaves, 2 sprigs coriander, 1/2 lemon, 0.5 tsp honey, 1 clove garlic, 2-3 Tbsp water
- Once the sweet potatoes are done, remove from the oven and allow to sit while you prep the filling.
- Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan (you want to use the frying pan with the largest base) and add the chickpeas to the pan. Allow them to sit and cook without touching them for a few minutes, just to get them nice and crispy at the bottom. Once they're browned at the bottom, you can use a spoon to start mixing them up.1 can chickpeas
- Add the garlic and tomatoes to the pan with the chickpeas and cook until the garlic is fragrant and the tomatoes are starting to break up a little.2 cloves garlic, 250 g cherry tomatoes
- Remove from the heat and set aside while you open up the sweet potatoes. Cut a slit across the top of the sweet potato, and then gently push from each side to pop it open and create a pocket for the filling.
- Spoon the chickpea and tomato mixture into the filling and allow to sit while you cook the halloumi.
- Using the same pan or a fresh one, heat some olive oil and then add the halloumi cubes. Fry for a couple minutes on each side until golden.125 g halloumi cheese
- Add to the top of the sweet potato.
- Spoon the sauce on top and serve immediately.
I’ve just made this & it was absolutely delicious ~ this recipe is one of those that’s been shunted to the front as a go to recipe. Thank you!
Aw that’s so nice to hear! I do love this one too 😁