Paleo diet plan

TWICE-BAKED SWEET POTATOES

These twice-baked sweet potatoes are super easy to customize so you can make them again and again and not feel like you’re always serving or eating the same thing. Sweet potatoes are always good, but if you’re constantly just roasting them and serving them with chicken (I’m really guilty of that one), after a while you start feeling like Paleo is boring. If you’ve made it to this point in this book, I hope you know that is not true! SERVES 4

PREP TIME: 15 minutes

COOK TIME: 1 hour, 20 minutes

4 medium sweet potatoes

6 tablespoons grass-fed butter, at room temperature

1 garlic clove, minced

5 or 6 scallions, sliced, divided

1 (13.5-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated

4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped, divided

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
  2. Poke each sweet potato 6 or 7 times with a fork. Place them on a baking sheet, and bake until tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove them from the oven, and reduce the oven temperature to 375°F.
  3. Cut the sweet potatoes in half, and scoop out most of the insides with a spoon (you want to leave a thin layer of flesh so the skins don’t rip). Transfer the sweet potato flesh to a medium bowl, and line up the skins on the baking sheet.
  4. In the bowl with the flesh, mix it with the butter, garlic, half the scallions, and the coconut cream from the top of the can of coconut milk. Fold in three-quarters of the chopped bacon, and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the filling into the sweet potato skins.
  5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until warmed through.
  6. Garnish with the remaining bacon and the rest of the scallions, and serve.

VARIATION 1 TWICE-BAKED SWEET POTATOES WITH SAUSAGE: Instead of bacon, add ¼ pound cooked spicy Italian sausage to the sweet potato filling.

VARIATION 2 DESSERT TWICE-BAKED SWEET POTATOES: Instead of garlic and scallions, mix ½ cup shredded coconut, ¼ cup raisins, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon with the coconut milk for the filling.

PREP TIP: Make this recipe through step 4 (fill the sweet potato skins), and then cover and refrigerate until ready to bake. Bake about half an hour before ready to serve.