12 Apr Root Chakra Roast Sweet Potatoes

Root Chakra Roast Sweet Potatoes filled with kidney beans, pomegranate and Amaranth

Beautiful, delicious and powerful recipe done by Amy van der Merwe of AnEarthenLife.com

“April is Earth Month so I thought it appropriate to talk about foods that are good for grounding and I am in need of this in my life and aligning my root chakra.
“the Root Chakra deals with feelings of security, trust and survival as well as with the connection we experience with our physical body and its nourishment. When this chakra is in balance we feel grounded, strong and secure and have a sense of inner security that allows us to trust in the universe.”
The Root chakra is also associate with the colour red and eating red foods which are commonly high in vitamin C. So in this recipe I have used red sweet potato, kidney beans and pomegranate as our red foods, as well as Amaranth – an ancient earth grain, black cumin and zaatar mix, all from Faithful to Nature.”

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 medium red sweet potatoes

STUFFING:

• 1 small red onion
• 1 clove black garlic (you can use regular garlic too – but black garlic has a beautiful earthy flavour)
• 1/4 red pepper
• 100ml dry amaranth
• Glug olive oil
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250g kidney beans
• 1 teaspoon black cumin

SAUCE AND GARNISH

• 20 mls coconut cream
• 1 ripe avocado
• Half a pomegranate
• 1 Tablespoon Lebanese Zaatar

METHOD

1. Poke some holes into your sweet potatoes and wrap them in tin foil and pop them into the coals of your fire (braai) otherwise put them in the oven in their skin at 220 degrees Celsius until they’re cooked.
2. Bring 3 cups of water to boil on the stove and add the amaranth and cook until it’s soft but has a little crunchy – like quinoa.
3. Once that’s cooked, drain the water and put the amaranth in a bowl. In the pot glug in some olive oil and add the finely chopped onion, garlic and red pepper. Cook on a low heat until the onion is transparent – about 3 minutes, then add the spinach, beans, spices, amaranth and salt and pepper, you can always add some chilli, I usually do.
4. When the sweet potatoes are ready to come out the oven, cut them open and squeeze then so that the insides push out a bit, then open them up and fill with the amaranth and bean mixture.
5. Top with avo, a drizzle of coconut cream, zaatar and pomegranate.