Twice-baked sweet potatoes

Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 2

Twice-baked potatoes – made with regular rather than sweet potatoes – was the first thing I learnt to make in domestic science at school. Scrape the flesh out, mash it with other simple ingredients, then pile it back in and bake or grill until the top is golden. There is no end to what can go into a twice-baked potato – flaked smoked haddock, buttery leeks and cheddar, for example – and sweet potatoes provide a contrast you can work with, mixing the flesh with salty goat’s cheese and olives, or gorgonzola and toasted walnuts. A baked potato can be so much more.

This version is frugal, no odd ingredients that you won’t use in another dish. Mound the filling in each half, don’t be afraid to really load it up. In cold weather I’d have purple sprouting broccoli on the side.

INGREDIENTS

– 2 large sweet potatoes,

about 300g each

– 1½ tbsp olive oil, plus

a drizzle to serve

– 1 small onion or

½ a large one, finely chopped

– 1 red chilli

– 2 garlic cloves,

finely chopped

– leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme, plus 4 small sprigs to garnish

– 10 cherry tomatoes

– 1 small egg, lightly

beaten

– 75g feta, crumbled

METHOD

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

Prick the potatoes a few times with a fork. Put them on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until they’re soft through to the middle.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan and sauté the onion until it is completely soft and golden. Halve the chilli horizontally. Deseed and finely slice one half and set this aside, and deseed and finely chop the other half. Add the garlic, chopped chilli and thyme leaves to the onion and fry for another two minutes.

When the potatoes are ready, halve them lengthways. Scoop out most of the flesh with a teaspoon (you want to leave a 1.5cm ‘wall’ within the shell of the skin). Mash the flesh and add it to the onion pan.

Halve some of the tomatoes and squidge others with your hand until they burst (this dish is good for using up soft tomatoes). Add them to the pan and cook for about seven minutes, but don’t let the tomatoes cook until they collapse – it’s nice to come across some pieces in the filling. Stir the beaten egg and 50g of the feta into the onion mixture. Season well and pile it into the potato halves.

Scatter the rest of the feta on top along with the sliced chilli. Put a sprig of thyme on each half and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top.