Baked potatoes but with an Asian twist with the use of purple sweet potatoes and an Asian-inspired filling.
I feel like we all grow up with certain food memories and rituals that we don't really understand or question until we are much older.
My partner strongly dislikes vegetables such as mushrooms, capsicum and zucchini. After numerous visits to his home city, I found out that his mother doesn't like these vegetables either. When we are visiting his grandparents, his grandmother tends to serve these vegetables drenched in olive oil making the vegetables soft and mushy (Euro style!). I pointed out to my partner that these are probably the causes (boom boom) of his dislike for these Mediterranean veggies. It actually never occurred to him but he could see the logic behind it.
Likewise, when I was younger, my family had stirfries every single day and my mother would often bake a single purple sweet potato and snack on it by herself for afternoon tea. She'd cut open the potato and if it was bright purple, she'd let out a soft 'oooo' and show it to me with excitement. I thought it was just another quirk of hers. However, during a recent trip to Thailand, and watching Japanese YouTube clips, I realised that sweet potatoes are like a staple in some Asian countries. It's not rare for local convenience stores to have ready-baked sweet potatoes on display. The smell would entice flocks of school kids, adults and the eldery.
Once I cut into my first potato, I saw its deep purple colour with the sauce oozing out of it. I smiled a little inside.
Asian-style stuffed baked sweet potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, about 6 inches long
- 200 g firm tofu
- ¼ cup Niulife Coconut Teriyaki sauce
- Other vegetables, as desired (I used carrots)
- ⅓ cup shelled edamame beans
- Handful of coriander and sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Cut potatoes lengthways, wrap in aluminium foil and bake in oven for 45-60 minutes
- Meanwhile, cut tofu into cubes and place in a shallow bowl. Gently mix through teriyaki sauce ensuring all of the tofu is covered.
- Prepare other vegetables as desired.
- When potatoes are soft in the middle, scoop out the middle of the potato and fill with tofu and other vegetables. Return the potatoes to the oven.
- Place the shelled edamame beans in a small ramekin filled with water and put in the oven to cook.
- After 10-15 minutes, remove potatoes and beans from the oven. Top potatoes with beans and more teriyaki sauce. Enjoy!
Hi, you say 'scoop out the middle of the potato' and then ? Do we use it ?
I can't find your teriyaki sauce in my country, can i use a simple teriyaki ?
Merci =)
Hi! Yes, you can mix the remaining potato with the tofu mixture (or what I did was eat it immediately while the tofu was warming up). And yes, feel free to use any teriyaki sauce! I hope this helps