Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potatoes with Greens and Beans

My oldest requested sweet and spicy sweet potato fries. We only had a few sweet potatoes in on hand and some greens I needed to use up so I threw this together. While my family would have preferred black beans I didn’t have any cans and no time to soak beans so we used chickpeas. So throwing together something like a bean and green or quinoa salad (minus the quinoa in this case) that I would make in the summer but warm for cooler days.

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potatoes with Greens and Beans

Makes 4 servings

3 sweet potatoes (approx. 1.5lb total) ,peeled and cubed into the size of a dice

2-15oz cans, chickpeas or black beans, rinsed and drained

2 c shredded or matchstick carrots

10 oz spinach or greens of choice (used Earthbound Farm Zen Blend, Asian greens, baby spinach, and baby kale)

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp sea salt

1 clove of garlic

Preheat oven to 400. In a small bowl mix together cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and sea salt. Place sweet potato cubes in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of oil and toss with clean hands to coat sweet potatoes. Spread sweet potatoes out on a non stick baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with foil. Sprinkle seasoning mixture over sweet potatoes and rub mixture into the potatoes with hands until they are all evenly coated. Place potatoes in the oven for 40 minutes, flipping/tossing half way through. If they are soft at 20 minutes when you flip them you can reduce the time and put them back in for 15 minutes. After placing the potatoes back in heat a large skillet over medium-heat. Place remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the pan and when hot add chickpeas and carrots. If your chickpeas and carrots are warm and your potatoes aren’t done yet reduce to simmer until your potatoes are done. When the potatoes are done, remove from oven and turn the heat back up to medium-high on the skillet. Grate in garlic to chickpeas and carrots and add half of the greens tossing, adding more as they shrink and you are able, until just wilted and remove from heat. Add in sweet potatoes or plate greens and chickpeas and top with sweet potatoes. Stir or try with both the sweet potatoes and greens before adding additional seasoning as there is a lot of flavor in the sweet potato so if eating just the beans and greens there isn’t a lot of flavor but together there is enough and you don’t want it to be overly salty or flavored. Enjoy!