Sweet Potato with Whipped Feta

This canapé ticks all the boxes (well most of them anyway): it has a choice of two toppings, one veggie and one not. The base is sweet potato, so it is gluten free. The whipped feta makes a great dip on its own - beating it makes it wonderfully smooth and creamy. The canapé is easy and fairly quick to make, quite a bit ahead if necessary and the ingredients make into a tasty main course salad, so no waste. Whoops, I almost forgot, it’s delicious too. What more could you want?

Ingredients - makes 12

1 or 2 sweet potatoes (depending on size)

1 tsp olive oil

30g feta

15g cream cheese (full fat - I used Philadelphia)

1 salad onion or 1 small slice Parma ham (baked for 8-10 minutes at 180°c until dry)

Black pepper

Method

First of all make the whipped feta, which will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

Crumble the feta into a food processor and process until it has broken down and it is very smooth. This can take 3 or 4 minutes.

Add the cream cheese and process until it is totally mixed. Keep in the fridge until needed. This also makes a good dip.

Heat oven to 190°

Peel the sweet potato and then slice lengthways into 1 cm slices. Using a pastry cutter (mine are from Kitchen craft available at Amazon) cut 3 cm diameter discs. Alternatively, if the sweet potatoes are small, just cut even sized slices.

Put on a baking tray, drizzle over a little olive oil, season and bake for 8-10 minutes or until tender.

Allow to cool before piping or spooning some whipped feta on top. Grind over black pepper. Sprinkle over some finely sliced salad onion or a small shard of crispy Parma ham and some parsley. These will keep, loosely covered in the fridge overnight.

Sweet potato, chick pea and feta salad

Ingredients - serves 4

400g sweet potato

1 x 400g tin chick peas

Olive oil

40g pine nuts, toasted

2 salad onions

80g feta

2 or 3 slices of Parma ham, baked as above

2 tbsp roughly chopped parsley

Dressing:

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

3 tbsp olive oil

0.5 tbsp maple syrup

Seasoning

Method

Heat oven to 180°c

Peel and cut the sweet potato into cubes, approximately 1.5cms x 1.5cms. Drizzle with olive oil and cook on a baking tray for about 15 minutes until just tender. Cool.

Mix the dressing ingredients together in a screw top jar.

Drain the chick peas. Place them in the serving bowl, or bowls. Mix in the sweet potato and salad onions.

Crumble over the feta and sprinkle over the parsley, pine nuts and Parma ham if using.

Mix the dressing ingredients and drizzle over.