Chickpea & Couscous Sweet Potato Boats
This tasty recipe is easy to make and packed with delicious skin-loving ingredients from The Eczema Diet and The Eczema Detox. However, you don't need to have eczema as anyone can enjoy them!
Benefits of sweet potato
Sweet potatoes (also called kumara) are rich in vitamin C, B vitamins, manganese and beta-carotene which is an important antioxidant that can increase your skin's hydration and resilience against UV sun damage.
Benefits of chickpeas
Chickpeas are packed with protein and provide a great source of insoluble fibre which helps to keep your gut healthy. Chickpeas are also a rich source of folate and minerals for healthy collagen formation in the skin including iron, manganese, copper and zinc.
- Preparation time 30 minutes; cooking time 1 hour
- Makes 6 stuffed sweet potatoes
- Salicylate level: Medium (sweet potatoes contain some sals)
- Amine level: Low
Ingredients
- 3 medium sized sweet potatoes (pick nice shapes)
- 2 cans organic chickpeas, rinsed thoroughly and briefly dried
- 1/2 cup spelt couscous (use gluten-free red or white quinoa if needed)
- 1/2 cup (125 mls) filtered water
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup finely diced chives
- Oil (if you have eczema, rosacea or psoriasis choose rice bran oil as it's low salicylate; if you have acne or pimple-prone skin favour e.v. olive oil)
- Garlic powder
- Quality sea salt
- Sesame free hummus (click for recipe)
Method
Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
Scrub 3 sweet potatoes clean, cut in half lengthways and coat each sweet potato with a little rice bran oil. Place onto a lined flat tray and bake in a hot oven for about 40 to 50 minutes or until soft and nicely roasted. You can flip them over for the last 20 minutes if you like.
Meanwhile drain and rinse the chickpeas, dry well in a tea towel and place on baking tray lined with baking paper. Coat chickpeas with a little oil of choice. Chickpeas took about 30 minutes to roast so pop them in towards the last half hour of roasting the sweet potato so they both come out nice and hot. Depending on the oven, the chickpeas may take more or less time so keep an eye on them to ensure they don't burn. We cooked ours till they had just a little bit of crunch.
While your sweet potatoes and chickpeas are cooking you can prep other ingredients so it is all ready to go.
Meanwhile, cook the spelt couscous (or GF quinoa) per packet instructions:
We added 1 teaspoon of oil, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 cup of boiling hot water and 1/2 cup of spelt couscous into a pot, covered with a lid and with the heat off we let it sit for 10 minutes to slowly cook (the water needs to have recently boiled, or bring to a boil first). After 10 minutes we briefly put the pot on a low heat and fluffed it with a fork to seperate until the couscous was soft. This can then be taken off the heat and left with lid on until ready to use.
The drizzler: We used our favourite sesame-free hummus recipe but added extra water to make it runny. Or you can use our cashew nut butter as an alternative. For a thinner hummus, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to 1/2 cup of hummus so it can be easily drizzled over the sweet potatoes when serving.
When the chickpeas (and sweet potatoes) are ready, remove them from oven and pour the chickpeas into a heat proof bowl, then coat with 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and about 1/2 teaspoon of quality sea salt (or less), and gently mix.
Scoop out part of the sweet potato to make 'boats' (this flesh can be used to make another tasty dish such as our sweet potato gnocchi or spread it onto toast). Fill the boats with couscous, roasted chickpeas and garnish with fresh herbs and your dressing of choice.
This dish could be served alongside a roasted chicken, eczema-friendly salad or enjoyed by themselves.
For more recipes like this one see The Eczema Detox and follow our Instagram.
Products
At Eczema Life, we recommend nutritionist Karen Fischer's low food chemical program (The Eczema Detox) along with additive-free supplements for skin health and wellbeing. Click on the images to view more details:
