May 11, 2018
(last updated January 27, 2020) 
Happy Friday! I’m feeling buoyed by a few days of sweet spring weather and celebration of my mom’s birthday a couple of days ago; it was such a gift to carve out a special evening for her. And I’m excited to be sharing this scrumptious recipe for sweet potato skin nachos from my friend Ali’s new cookbook, Inspiralized & Beyond.
I’ve known Ali through blogging for years now, and I’ve always appreciated her enthusiastic, yet totally down-to-earth and relatable approach to healthful cooking and eating. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ali’s work, she’s known for being the creator of the Inspiralizer, which is the type of spiralizer I use at home, and the Inspiralized website.
Ali was able to enhance her own health by using spiralized vegetable bases as part of her meals, and her past cookbooks (I’ve written about both of them, here and here) have been full of creative, inspiring, spiralizer meals. In recent years Ali’s recipes have become more inclusive: she still spiralizes often, but her main goal is to showcase vegetables in interesting and unexpected ways.
Her new book, Inspiralized & Beyond, is dedicated to that goal. The subtitle is “spiralize/chop/rice & hash your vegetables into creative, craveable meals,” and it’s a perfect summary of what the recipes are all about. There are zucchini boats, Brussels sprout sliders, cauliflower and cabbage steaks, zucchini dumplings, jicama shell tacos, and of course, plenty of vegetable noodles.
As someone who eats plenty of the starches that riced and spiralized vegetables are intended to replace, I don’t often bookmark zoodle or cauli rice recipes. But I do love using vegetables creatively, and summer is an especially nice time to allow them to be the centerpiece of meals. I also often recommend investing in a spiralizer to clients who are struggling to eat more veggies: spiralized zucchini, carrot, beet, celery root, and butternut squash can be folded into traditional spaghetti, soups, and stir-fries for a subtle, nutrient-dense boost.
Now I’ll be recommending Ali’s new book, too. She describes her goal as being “not just making vegetables taste good,” but rather “turning them into meals that will inspire you and surprise both your mind and your taste buds.” As always her recipes are creative, fun, and accessible, and they channel her infectious love of food, which I’ve always appreciated in her work and as her friend. I’m already excited to try the jicama chips with a chili-spiced cashew dip, the Brussels sprout and tofu mini-sliders, the beet poke bowls, jicama tacos, and the split pea dal in acorn squash cups (yum!).
This isn’t a vegan cookbook: I’d say about a quarter of the recipes are vegan as written, and half are vegetarian. Among the vegetarian options, many can be veganized with a vegan cheese; a few (like the delicata squash cups with baked eggs) could be made vegan with tofu scramble in place of eggs. If you’re keen on dedicated vegan options only, this may not be the right book for you, but if you’re trying to eat more plants overall, I think it’s a super resource.
I can already tell that I’ll use a lot of Ali’s tips for using vegetables to create my own templates for meals. And in the front matter, she explains in detail what she means by “beyond,” explaining which vegetables work best for which forms (noodles, rice, buns or wraps, etc.) and saying a few words on how to use plant-based proteins if you’re trying to eat less meat.
These baked sweet potato nachos have already taught me something! I’ve made twice-baked potatoes before (this one is a fave), mashing the center of the potato up and then stuffing the potatoes before baking. Ali’s recipe calls for scooping the potato flesh out, saving it for whatever (I made a sweet potato mash and served it with baked tofu and broccoli for dinner), then broiling the skins till they’re crispy. They turn into a very handy, all-veggie “nacho” chip.
Be sure to leave about 1/4-inch of flesh in the potato skins, so that they aren’t too thin when you bake them (if they are, they might burn). Ali notes this, but I forgot to do it when I was scooping my first two halves, so I thought I’d mention it. I didn’t have cilantro or scallions, so I substituted chopped romaine—next time I’d definitely use the former for extra flavor.
Alis’ recipe calls for shredded cheese. You could omit this altogether if you wish—with all of the toppings, the recipe will still be super tasty. You can also use a vegan shredded cheese, or you can use a vegan cheese sauce, which is what I did! I used the carrot cheese sauce from this mac n’ cheese recipe, which I’m loving on baked potatoes lately. My cashew queso sauce would work well, too. Here’s the recipe.
Sweet Potato Skin Nachos
Author -Yields: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
- 4 medium sweet potatoes
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Fine sea salt and pepper
- 1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup no-salt-added canned corn kernels drained and rinsed (or 1/2 cup frozen and thawed corn)
- 1 cup carrot cheese sauce from my carrot mac recipe, cashew queso sauce, or 2 cups shredded vegan cheese of choice
- 1 large jalapeño pepper sliced into very thin rounds
- 1 medium tomato seeded and diced
- 1 to 2 avocados pitted, peeled, and cubed
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 cup sliced scallions
- 1/4 cup finely chopped white onion I omitted in my version
- 1 lime quartered, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the center position.
- Pierce each potato 4 times with a fork. Place the potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake until the skins are crisp and the flesh is fork-tender, 45 to 55 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes, until cool enough to handle. Turn the broiler to high.
- Halve each potato lengthwise, then cut each half in half crosswise. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh, leaving about 1/4 inch intact. Reserve the flesh for another use (or snack on it now).
- Brush the skins on both sides with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange them skin-side up on a baking sheet, spacing them apart, and broil until the skins start to crisp, 2 to 3 minutes, monitoring them closely so they don't burn. Flip the potato skins over and broil until the top edges just start to brown, 2 to 3 minutes more.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Push the skins together on the baking sheet so they are just touching. Top with the beans and corn. Drizzle the cheese sauce (or sprinkle the cheese) evenly over the top and bake until the cheese melts and ingredients are all warm, about 5 minutes.
- Immediately garnish with the jalapeño, tomato, avocado, cilantro, scallions, and white onion if using. Season with salt. Serve warm, with lime wedges.
Ali and her publisher have generously offered one US reader the chance to win a copy of Inspiralized & Beyond plus an Inspliralizer to play with! I love my Inspiralizer and am really excited about this giveaway. Enter below, and I’ll announce a winner two weeks from today.
Good luck! And I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe—it’s perfect for summer parties and gatherings. See you on Sunday for the weekly roundup.
xo
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Categories: Recipes,
Main Dishes,
Side Dishes
Method: Oven
Ingredients: Cashew Nuts, Sweet Potato
Dietary Preferences: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Tree Nut Free, Vegan
Method: Oven
Ingredients: Cashew Nuts, Sweet Potato
Dietary Preferences: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Tree Nut Free, Vegan
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This was so yummy but also so fiddly and time-consuming. My skins weren’t even that crispy, and became less crispy once they were loaded with toppings, so I think next time I would just slice sweet potato rounds and bake them instead to make things easier.
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe. My family thoroughly enjoyed it.
I use veggies in pasta dishes.
Never even knew this existed! Amazing thing, making me hungry thinking of the possibilities 😛
I love grilled veggies most these days 🙂
I don’t have a creative way to prepare vegetables right now, which is why I need to win this!
I’m not sure how creative this is but every morning I have oatmeal (I’m kind of addicted lol) so in order to sneak more greens in to my diet I blend up a bunch of greens with my nut milk before I cook my oats in it. After you add in all of the mix-ins and toppings you can’t really taste the greens and it’s a great way to add in more nutrition to the meal. Plus it makes the oats a really pretty vibrant green color 🙂
I love making huge beautiful salads (“the salad is the meal”) with all kinds of fruits and veggies and vegan protein and a yummy dressing! Makes me hungry just thinking about it! Spiralizing would add even more interest!
I love sneaking veggies into baked goods to where you don’t realize they are in it.
These nachos will be tonight’s dinner! Can’t wait.
I love sneaking veggies in wherever possible. One of my fave ways is by adding shredded zucchini and/or carrots to oatmeal and overnight oats.
I just love love vegetables, there’s so many amazing ways thy can be incorporated into pretty much every meal. My favorite/most creative way to use them, has to be incorporating them in desserts. Sweet potato in cake, zucchini in cookies, and beets in muffins, just to name a few.
I always add extra handfuls of spinach and kale into my smoothies as well as frozen cucumber and zucchini chunks! This recipe looks delicious
I love the use of the skins of sweet potatoes for chips. My family won’t eat the skins when I bake sweet potatoes so this reduces so much waste and makes nachos healthier! WIN
I’m not very creative, lol. I just am always sure to have sturdy greens on hand -kale, chard, etc – for a quick stam or saute to add to the meal.
My trick for eating more greens is to dehydrated them and then using my food processor turn them into crumbs that I can easily sprinkle in anything I cook. They look like Italian seasonings and no one is the wiser. They basically have no taste.
I found that I don’t have to be sneaky with veggies. I just server them with everything and try to include a variety that everyone likes.
Definitely sauteed! I love sauteed vegetables.
I love mushrooms in bolognese with zucchini ‘noodles’.
i love using spaghetti squash!! i would love this book
I love sneaking unconventional veggies onto pizzas or in pastas! Zucchini or thinly sliced sweet potatoes on pizza is so delicious!
I’ve jumped on the cauliflower pizza crust bandwagon and don’t plan on getting off anytime soon!
I love roasting or sauteeing cauliflower and having instead of pasta- it’s not the same thing, but it’s so good in it’s own right!
Thanks for the great recipe!
Trying to eat fewer grains so a spiralizer would be really, really helpful!
This looks delicious! I love spiralized veggies instead of noodles or roasting veggies for chips or fries.
I swear I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about anything as I am this giveaway!!! I have wanted an inspiralizer FOREVER and have been unable to purchase one as of yet I have coveted Ali’s cookbooks for a long time and use her recipes from her website all the time!
These nachos look delicious! Sweet potatoes are my favorite and I never thought to use them in his way and your vegan cheese sauce looks amazing. Definitely adding this to the rotation this week. Thank you!
I love making fruit and veggie purees to add to a variety of dishes. It is especially helpful for gluten free muffins. It helps keep them more moist.
This looks amazing!!!!
I love veggies as the base of any sauce!
I’m just learning about spiralizing veggies, lots to learn, but so far it’s fun!
those nacho’s do look yummy. I like to add spinach or swiss chard to rice, beans and where ever i can get it in.
I like to use them in chili, also I roast a lot of sweet potato or potatoes
Yes! Always looking for more sweet potato dinner recipes 🙂
I love to add veggies into bake goods .
I love pureeing them in the base sauce..they add such a depth of flavour when cooked through and more importantly you can use ‘scraps’ which are more flavorsome
The nachos look yummy! I love to add kimchi for extra flavor in a stir fry recipe.
I pretty much use veggies in the usual way…I’ve considered ricing and doodling but haven’t taken the plunge yet, this looks like an excellent way to get started!
The nachos look so Good!
I ‘ll be making these soon!
love to spiralize veggies! so fun 🙂
These nachos look amazing! I know this isn’t profound but I love to throw greens into many meals so I am getting them in even if the entrée isn’t totally focused on them. Prior to eating this way, I didn’t even think to add kale to soups and pastas but now this has become a staple of ours. Thank you for the chance to win.