thai peanut sweet potato skins

Growing up, potato skins were one of my favvvvvvorite foods. I'm talking about the bacon, cheese, sour cream loaded kind that you find at a TGI Fridays after a long Saturday of buying junk at the mall. Those potato skins. Just writing this right now, I can taste them and I am getting hungry. They were soooo good, but soooo bad. 

Fast forward to now, I have not eaten or even thought about a potato skin for years and years. Then, during a conversation with a friend recently about stuffed sweet potatoes, I had a flashback to those yummy potato skins. OMG, yessss, I need to make an updated version of potato skins ASAP. 

I am sure it is pretty obvious that my version of potato skins today are not going to have all that bacon, cheddar cheese, and sour cream of my mall-going days. I thought about mimicking them by veganizing all of those ingredients, but let's be honest, we will both feel a bit cheated if I do that. So let's do this instead. Use a sweet potato instead of a white potato and top them with a uber-flavorful thai peanut sauce and finish them off with pad-thai-like toppings with a lot of green and crunch. 

These guys are delicious and addicting in totally different way than the old school potato skin. They are that kind of fancy / un-fancy party food that you can serve to pretty much anyone (with a slightly open mind) and they will scarf them down.  And, I totally accidentally posted this the week before Super Bowl (yep …. just realized today it was super bowl today), but these would be the perfect way to sneak in some healthy indulgence into your super bowl party, if you're into that sort of thing. 

thai peanut sweet potato skins

MAKES
about 16 skins

INGREDIENTS

2 large sweet potatoes
olive oil
salt + pepper

for the thai peanut sauce
1/4 cup of peanut or almond butter
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoons of tamari 
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil 
1 teaspoon of ginger, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons of lime juice (or lemon juice will work as well)
2-4 tablespoons of water

toppings:
2 green onions, sliced thin
¼ cup of toasted nuts (peanuts, almonds, or pine nuts)
a few basil leaves, chiffonade
a handful of cilantro
a sprinkle of gomasio 

METHOD

Roast the sweet potatoes

• Pre-heat the oven to 400º. 
• Using a fork, poke a bunch of holes in the sweet potatoes. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for about 45mins – 1 hour, until the sweet potato is soft and cooked through.

While the potatoes are roasting, prep the toppings and make the sauce

• Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes, until light brown. Give them a rough chop. 
• Then, make the sauce by adding all of the ingredients, except for the water, to the food processor and pulsing several times until the mixture is smooth. Then add the water a tablespoon at a time until you have the desired consistency. I find that 2-3 tablespoons should be enough, but feel free to add more if you want to thin it out a little.

When the sweet potatoes are done cooking, prepare the skins

• After you remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, change the oven setting to the broil (keep the rack in the middle).
• Cut the potatoes in half. Then, scoop out most of the flesh, leaving a thin layer (about 1/4") of sweet potato on top of the skins.
• Cut each half into quarters, brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and place back onto the parchment baking sheet.
• Broil for 5-7 minutes, turn the potato skins and broil for another 5-7 minutes. You want the edges become really crispy. I find that each broiler is different, some cook very fast and others are slow. Keep a close eye on them ensure your skin don’t burn.

Assemble the skins

• Allow the skins to cool slightly before assembling. Then, add a healthy drizzle of the peanut sauce. Sprinkle the green onion, nuts, cilantro, basil, and gomasio over top. Serve warm with the extra peanut sauce on the side, for dipping.