Parties to attend, gifts to wrap, flights to catch ... with all the busyness of the holidays, finding the time and energy to cook a proper, nourishing meal can be a challenge. But unless you intend to eat cookies for dinner (it's okay, we won't tell!), it can make all the difference to plan for a few simple and healthy dishes. Here's one of our go-tos: savory stuffed sweet potatoes with beans and greens. It can be a complete meal by itself, and is adaptable to what you have on hand.
Depending on your schedule and inclination, you can cook this all at once, make some of it beforehand, or make the entire thing ahead and warm it up before serving. (Eating it cold isn't so terrible, either.) In any case, it makes a satisfying meal full of colors and textures and the warm flavors of rosemary, garlic, and red pepper – and significantly more nutrients than a plate of cookies.

The sweet potatoes take about an hour to bake, but they're hands-off so you can use the time to write holiday cards or spend time with family or simply catch your breath. If you like, bake the sweet potatoes ahead, store them in the refrigerator for 3-5 days, and reheat.

If you're cooking the beans from scratch, you might simmer them with a bay leaf, a sprig of rosemary, and a sprig of sage. Of course, you can also use canned beans, which are quick and easy. Although we cooked with Great Northern beans and curly kale in these pictures, we encourage you to think of this recipe as a template and experiment with other varieties of beans and greens, from Tuscan kale to chard, cannellini beans to chickpeas.

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Beans and Greens
Serves 44 sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 (4-inch) sprig fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups (or 1 can) cooked and drained white beans
6 cups kale, trimmed and sliced into ribbons
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Scrub the sweet potatoes and prick them in a few places with a fork. Place them on a baking sheet and bake until soft all the way through, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Start the beans and greens about 15 to 20 minutes before the sweet potatoes are done.
In a wide, deep saucepan with a cover, heat the olive oil over low-moderate heat. Add the shallots and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, rosemary sprig, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add the beans and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the kale, cover the pan, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until the kale is soft. Remove the rosemary sprig, stir in the lemon juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
To serve, slice each sweet potato lengthwise and push on the ends to open up the middle. Spoon the beans and greens into the center.
Related: Travel Recipe: Spiced Lentil, Sweet Potato & Kale Whole Wheat Pockets
(Images: Emily Ho)
Kart Serving Tray b...

Comments (21)
these are all of my boyfriend's favorite things-- i know what's for dinner tonight!
Yuuuuum!
Looks delicious. I wish you'd posted this a few days ago; my dinners this week have been pitiful amidst all the pre-holiday nuttiness!
O my. Talk about comfort food. I'm using chard and cannellinis. And butter on that potato.
Butter. On. Potato. :/
May I please leave work to go home and make it .Looks wonderful thank you.!! :)
Cleaned out csa bin.. Cabbage and chickpea substitution with a few purple kale leaves.
Delicious.
Healthy and delicious... Looks great!
Refreshing to see how far we've come...no longer the meat, starch, veg -standard "meal" combo. This is ~PERFECT, as well as visually touching a LOT of minds...it's all we really NEED, and downright tasty too. Thank you!
This is dinner at least once a week in our home. I particularly like to top if with braised kale and the Chipotle-Orange Black Bean recipe from Whole Foods' website.
Good, clean eating!
Those look like yams, not sweet potatos. What's up with that?
Salt Water, I found out recently that almost all things sold in the US under the name of "yams" are actually sweet potatoes! It kind of blew my mind, but it's true! Real yams would scare you. Giant, scaly, thick-skinned things.
*THE MORE YOU KNOW
These look delicious and filling. I've been pressure cooking batches of beans to use in various recipes; this will work perfectly.
I'm about to do this recipe with the suggested Chipotle-Orange Black Bean recipe from Whole Foods. Love sweet potatoes, black beans and kale. All in one meal?! I had try it this way first, then my next try will be the original recipe. :)
I often put kale and cannellini beans together in soup, but I like the idea of using the combo to stuff a sweet potato. Nutrition heaven! Fiber fest! I think you could spice the kale and beans even more (not a big rosemary fan myself, but perhaps some cumin...). Thanks!
seriously the perfect meal for a pregnant woman! it's got all the good stuff for a growing sprout.
I printed the recipe as soon as I saw it, and made it for lunch yesterday. We loved it! What a lovely combination of flavors and textures. I can't wait to eat it again, it was THAT GOOD! Thank you so much for the recipe.
I cannot wait to try this! Great dinner idea for the family... our 1 year old daughter will LOVE this! :) Thanks!
Made this last night with black beans and kale and it was a big hit! I'm looking forward to leftovers for lunch. I agree with @Just Montessori - buttering the sweets first made it better :)
Also, we decided that we could have doubled the beans and greens and it would have been perfect. We ended up rationing our b&g to last with the whole sweet potato. Highly recommended. YUM!
I've made this twice now, and I really like it. (I do add butter to the sweet potatoes!)
I made these last night--they were amazing! Thank you for the recipe!
This is one of my favorite new recipes. I do up the amount of lemon juice a bit. The flavors just mesh so well.