Pizza Sweet Potato Skins

You guys know that sweet potatoes have been ranked as the #1 most nutritious vegetable?
The Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet potatoes to other vegetables. Considering fibre content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium,  sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value.
Yes, you read it right. Sweet potato is numero uno!
The orange-skinned root vegetable got 184 point, spinach 76, kale 55 and broccoli just 52.
Talking about crushing the competition...

As a kid, I didn't care for sweet potatoes, actually I thought that the traditional sweet potato casserole - studded with marshmallows, little puddles of maple syrup resting in the crevices - was a waste of perfectly good mini-marshmallows and maple syrup.
Only when I happened to taste a plain, baked sweet potato, topped with butter and sprinkled with rosemary and salt, did I realize that it tasted good.
Then I tried sweet potato fries for the first time my freshman year of college at a place on campus.
It was all downhill from there. Those little orangey sticks were so good!
Now, I roast sweet potatoes, bake them, steam them and mash them in all sorts of dishes.
I think that saddling sweet potatoes with pie ingredients - brown sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup - and calling them a side dish masks their delicious natural sweetness and it's a waste.
Sweet potatoes have far too much to offer to relegate them to a cloying, gooey annual tradition.

But that’s not the end of the story.
I’ve recently discovered that the edible skin of sweet potatoes contains high amounts of many of the sweet potato’s legendary nutritional elements and a ton of dietary fiber too.
So why go to the trouble of removing the skin?
Let’s eat the whole thing!

Which brings me to these pizza sweet potato skins.
Sweet potato skins are basically stuffed sweet potatoes, but with a crispy delicious (and edible) skin.
You can fill them with a variety of ingredients with different flavor combinations.
Since the other day I had my 6-year-old niece and my 8-year-old nephew over for lunch, I made pizza sweet potato skins.
Because pizza and kids go together like Dora and exploration.
So I mixed the marinara sauce and seasoning with the sweet potato flesh, a bit of gooey mozzarella and their favorite topping (aka pepperoni).
The kids devoured them.
There is no debating that these pizza sweet potato skins are an awesomeawesomeawesome thing.
It’s like combining the best superfood ever – sweet potatoes – with the best comfort food ever - pizza obviously - and making it into something that’s warm, delish and healthy too.

Pizza Sweet Potato Skins                                                                                                                                    Print this recipe!

Ingredients
Serves 4

2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean
2 tablespoons butter (or coconut oil), melted
1 cup / 8.8 oz / 250 gr marinara sauce
½ teaspoon dried oregano (or Italian seasoning)
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ cup / 4 oz / 113 gr shredded mozzarella cheese

Toppings of your choice (I used Applegate’s organic uncured pepperoni)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C) and place a rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with foil, set aside.
Pierce the sweet potatoes several times with the tines of a fork.
Place the sweet potatoes on the lined baking sheet and bake until tender about 45 to 50 minutes.
When the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half lengthwise.
With a spoon scrape the sweet potato “flesh” out of the peel, leaving a thin layer inside with the peel so that it can stand up on its own (about ¼ inch).
Transfer sweet potato flesh to a bowl, and mash it with the marinara sauce, oregano, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Brush sweet potato skins with melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Return to the baking sheet, skin up, and bake for further 5 minutes, to get a crispier skin.
Take the potato skins out of the oven and fill each potato skin with sweet potato mixture, top with shredded mozzarella and your favorite toppings.
Place them back in the oven for 4 minutes or until cheese is melted and filling is heated through.
Serve immediately!

Nutrition facts

One potato skin (i.e., half sweet potato) yields 180 calories, 9 grams of fat, 18 grams of carbs and 6 grams of protein.