Kale, Mushroom & Sweetcorn Filled Baked Sweet Potato With Umami Tahini Dressing

Simple and easy to make, this satisfying, colourful and tasty dish is packed with the goodness of kale and sweet potato, the nutritionally superior cousin to the white potato (and counts as one of your 5-a-day). Serve with your favourite protein dish to create a perfect meal to warm those autumn and winter days.

Serves 2
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 medium, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, washed
• 90g curly kale, washed and chopped after removing stems
• ½ leek, sliced
• ½ jar Clearspring Bio Kitchen Organic Button Mushrooms
• 1 heaped tbsp Clearspring Bio Kitchen Organic Sweetcorn
• 1 heaped tbsp Clearspring Organic Umami Paste with Ginger
• 1 tsp ginger juice from 1cm of ginger root, grated and squeezed
• 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds
• 1 tsp Clearspring Organic Sesame Oil
• 1 pinch Clearspring Traditional Sea Salt

For the Umami Tahini Dressing:

• 1 tbsp light tahini
• 1 tbsp hot water
• 1 tsp Clearspring Organic Umami Paste with Ginger
• ½ tsp Clearspring Organic Malt Syrup

Method

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Prick the sweet potatoes in several places and bake for 45 mins until soft.
2. To make the sauce, first mix the tahini with the hot water until nice and creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Sauté the mushrooms with a good pinch of sea salt until all the juices have evaporated. Put aside.
4. Place enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan and bring it to a boil. Toss the leeks in the simmering water just as if sautéing in oil until tender and then add the kale. Cook for a further 1-2 minutes until just softening.
5. Stir in the sweetcorn, mushrooms followed by the umami paste, ginger juice and half of the sesame seeds. Mix well and immediately turn off the heat.
6. Cut the sweet potatoes open. Spread some of the juices on the flesh, then fill with the vegetables. Serve with the tahini dressing and a sprinkling of the remaining sesame seeds. Enjoy!

Chef

Junko Maria Furugori

Junko has a passion for cookery that goes back to her childhood days in Japan. Growing up close to her grandparents who enjoyed both traditional Japanese cookery and Western foods, while at home her Spanish mother created her own version of fusion cooking, she quickly developed a curiosity for experimentation in the kitchen.

A love for all things food-related turned to a focus on the healing power of plant-based wholefoods during a spell of ill health in her early 20s. Through personal study, encountering Okido Yoga and working at Clearspring opened the doors to the world of organic and macrobiotic foods.

Since then she has studied with Bob Lloyd, Setsuko Dawson, Kiyoko Onishi and Montse Bradford and holds a teaching diploma in natural nutrition and energetic cookery. Currently combining her holistic health practice with working in the kitchen of bhuti, a wellness centre in Richmond, she wants to spread the joy and benefits of simple, healthy and delicious everyday cooking using high quality ingredients that are kind to both people and planet.

For more information visit: www.eighthelementhealing.com