Baked sweet potatoes with honey-roast feta, olives, beets and mint

Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 1 hour

Serves 2

This is deceptively simple. In addition to the potato you only have to cook the feta and do some quickpickled slices of onion. But look at the mixture of punchy flavours that meet here; there isn’t a dull mouthful.

Use coriander instead of mint, or black olives instead of green ones, if you prefer.

INGREDIENTS

– 2 large sweet

potatoes

– 150g block of feta

– 1 tbsp honey, or as

needed

– 2 tbsp extra-virgin

olive oil

– small pinch of chilli

flakes

– ½ red onion, very

finely sliced

– ½ tsp sumac

– 2 tsp lemon juice – 1 small garlic

clove, grated

– 6 tbsp Greek yoghurt

(more if you want) – 100g cooked beetroot, cut into cubes or little slim wedges

– 35g pitted green olives, whole or roughly chopped – leaves from 3 sprigs

of mint

METHOD

Heat the oven to 200C/ 190C fan/gas mark 6.

Pierce the potatoes a few times with the tines of a fork. Put them on a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet and cook them until they are tender right through, about an hour (the sugar in sweet potatoes caramelises and runs out of the potato, which is why you need to put them on a baking sheet).

Cook the feta at the same time as the potatoes. Put the block in a baking dish that’s about the same size as the piece of cheese (placing it first on a piece of foil to pull up round the sides – but not over the top – saves washing up if your honey burns).

Brush the feta with the honey, and add 2 tsp of the olive oil, a few chilli flakes and some seasoning. Bake for 20 minutes.

Toss the onion slices with the sumac and lemon juice, the rest of the olive oil and some seasoning.

Stir the garlic into the yoghurt and season the beetroot.

Once cooked, split open the potatoes – without cutting all the way through – and season the insides.

Put a few dollops of yoghurt in each potato and top with all the other ingredients, making sure the feta – the co-star in this dish – is visible. Drizzle with more honey, if you like, and serve immediately.