Pomegranate Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Onions and Whipped Tahini

This morning I have a recipe I’ve been meaning to share with you for almost as long as I’d been meaning to make it.  Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

And you’re going to have to wait just a moment longer, because first I’m going to go on a little tangent.  Don’t worry it’s a positive tangent!  Just a short aside on the benefits of maintaining an active lifestyle.  You all saw the food I ate abroad (or if you didn’t, check it out! Germany, Sweden, France, Barcelona, Andalucía, Mérida and Madrid, Mercado San Miguel. Probably not best to do when you’re hungry.)  Most of us are familiar with vacation mode, but I ate this way for five weeks.  Yes, there were some home cooked meals and salads for lunch scattered throughout, but I definitely spent five weeks enjoying the food and drink of whatever country I was visiting.  My pants were a bit tight by the end of my little adventure, but when I got home I was fairly surprised to find I’d only gained one pound over the holidays and my trip, which I’ve subsequently lost without taking any extreme measures.

What am I getting at with all of this?  Just how impressed I am by the power of being physically active.  Somewhere between all these meals, I found the time to run in every single country I visited (it’s really one of my favorite ways to explore a city!) and except to and from the airport, I didn’t take a single cab.  I’ve been reading a lot in my Intro to Nutrition class about the impact of physical activity on preventing weight gain, not just due to the energy expended during exercise itself, but also by increasing resting metabolic rate and creating lean muscle mass, which in turn is much more efficient at burning energy.  This isn’t anything I hadn’t heard before, but after my experience eating all the things in Europe, I’m pretty sold.  I’ve always said you can teach yourself to love exercise but you’ll never learn to love depriving yourself.  If taking a beautiful run through the park/beach/mountains means I can indulge now any then for five weeks with minimal consequences, count me in!

On that note, I’m sharing a pretty healthy recipe with you today.  Don’t be put off by the number of components, these are worth it!

Pomegranate Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Onions and Whipped Tahini

From Worth Cooking

Ingredients:

• 6 medium sized sweet potatoes, baked
• Pomegranate Chicken (below)
• Whipped Tahini (below)
• Caramelized Onion (below)
• Additional Pomegranate Molasses (optional)

Slice open the sweet potatoes and smash the flesh a bit with a fork to make room for the goodies.  Top with chicken, caramelized onions, tahini and an additional drizzle of pomegranate molasses, if desired.

• ⅓ cup tahini
• Approximately ⅓ cup of cold water
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix the tahini, salt, lemon juice, and garlic together. Stir in the water the water with a fork, about a teaspoon at a time, until it goes from looking curdled to very creamy and light. Stir in the olive oil.

For the Caramelized Onions

• 2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil, butter or a combination of the two
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar (optional)

*Use this step-by-step if you feel you need more details.

Johanna