Silky Sweet Potatoes with Cucumber Tahini Ranch, Green Veg and Chickpeas
Serves: 2 as a main or 4 as a side
 
Ingredients
for the cucumber tahini ranch
  • ¼ cup tahini
  • zest from 1 large lemon, divided
  • juice from 1 large lemon
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1-inch piece of cucumber - shredded
  • 3-4 sprigs of dill - chopped
  • 2 scallions - sliced
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper - to taste
  • apple cider vinegar and water - for thinning
for the vegetables and chickpeas
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes - halved
  • olive oil
  • 1 15 oz can chickpeas or 1½ cups cooked chickpeas
  • sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 2 stalks of broccoli - cut into florets
  • 4-5 leaves Lacinato kale - stemmed and torn
  • lemon zest (reserved from the ranch)
  • red pepper flakes
Instructions
to make the cucumber tahini ranch
  1. In a medium bowl, combine the tahini, half of the lemon zest (reserve the rest for later), lemon juice, olive oil, maple syrup, mustard, nutritional yeast, and garlic powder, and mix until you have a smooth paste. Add the cucumber, dill, scallions, salt and black pepper to taste, mixing everything in. Your ranch will be pretty thick at this point, so thin it out with splashes of apple cider vinegar and water, until you have a glossy, creamy sauce. Taste for acidity, salt, and pepper, and adjust if needed. This ranch will last refrigerated in an air-tight container for 3-4 days.
to make the vegetables and chickpeas
  1. Set a tiered bamboo steamer or steaming basked over a pot with boiling water. Place the sweet potatoes into the steamer, cover, and steam for 35-40 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork-tender and custardy.
  2. While the sweet potatoes are cooking, prepare the crispy chickpeas. Drain and dry off your chickpeas really well with a kitchen towel, lightly rubbing them to get as many as you can out of their skins. This will prevent the chickpeas from popping in the pan. Warm a generous pour of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the chickpeas and fry, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes, until golden and crispy. Transfer the chickpeas to a bowl and mix in some salt to taste, as well as the nutritional yeast and smoked paprika. Do not wash the pan, but wipe it off if there's any burnt bits.
  3. In the last 5 minutes of the sweet potato steaming time, add the broccoli and kale to the same steaming basket or add another tier to your bamboo steamer and add the green vegetables to that. Cover and steam for 5 minutes, until the broccoli is bright green and the kale is slightly softened.
  4. While the broccoli and kale are steaming, warm a bit more olive oil in the same pan you used for the chickpeas, over medium low heat. Add the reserved lemon zest (from the ranch recipe) and a pinch of red pepper flakes and let the oil infuse until the vegetables are done. Once the vegetables are done steaming, add the broccoli and kale to the pan with the infused oil, add a pinch of salt, and toss to coat.
  5. Serve the steamed sweet potatoes with a pinch of salt, a good slather of the ranch, topped with the green vegetables and chickpeas, and liberally drenched in more ranch. Enjoy!
Recipe by Golubka Kitchen at https://golubkakitchen.com/silky-sweet-potatoes-with-cucumber-tahini-ranch-green-veg-and-chickpeas/