Healthy Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

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Soft, roasted sweet potatoes topped with a tasty meat, pecan & vegetable stuffing makes for a delicious, nutritionally balanced recipe the whole family will enjoy.

I love making healthy food for our family so I know we are taking the best care of our bodies as we can. I served these sweet potatoes for lunch to our family and a friend of ours and everyone loved them! Even my stepson, Kase, who is 9, downed the whole thing. Ty doesn’t even love sweet potatoes nearly as much as I do but he said they were delicious (he topped his with some hot sauce).

Healthy Ingredients

Pecans

  • Pecans are a nutrition powerhouse loaded with vitamins and minerals.
  • Pecans are a good source of calcium, magnesium, and potassium, which help lower blood pressure. 
  • Most of the fat found in pecans is a healthy type called monounsaturated fat. Eating foods with monounsaturated fat instead of foods high in saturated fats (like potato chips) can help lower levels of bad LDL cholesterol. Keeping your LDL cholesterol low cuts down your risk of having a stroke or heart attack.
  • Pecans also contain Omega-3 fats, which can help ease the pain of arthritis by reducing inflammation. The magnesium, calcium, fiber, vitamin E, and zinc in pecans also give the nuts anti-inflammatory properties.
  • Vitamin A, vitamin E, and zinc, which are all found in pecans, support your immune system so that your body can fight off infections and repair damage. Pecans also provide folate, which can guard against changes to your DNA that might otherwise lead to cancer. 
  • Antioxidants can help protect the body from the cell damage that causes Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and cancers. The USDA has ranked over 100 foods by antioxidant levels, and pecans made the top 20.

Sweet Potatoes

Choice of Meat

You can use sausage, turkey sausage, ground chicken, ground bison or ground beef in this recipe and it will be delicious either way. It really depends on what you are looking for to get out of this nutritionally. Here is a list of healthy meat choices for you to choose from depending on what you like.

Listed in order from highest amount of protein/lowest amount of fat based on a 4 oz serving:

Pederson’s Natural Farms

Two of our cowboy friends, Cody Lane and Neil Dudley started Pederson’s Natural Farms right down the road from us in Hamilton, TX. I met Cody and Neil shortly after I met Ty at the annual TY Ranch branding. I’m so happy to be able to truly support our friend’s and their company because their products align with my passion of cooking with healthy, real ingredients.

All of Pederons’s products are humanely raised (no cages and free to roam), made without the use of artificial ingredients or artificial preservatives, they’re nitrate and nitrite free, MSG-free, gluten-free, and soy-free. Additionally, Pederson’s offers products that are Non-GMO Project Verified, organic, Whole30 Approved, and paleo and keto-friendly. We like to say that we are Making the Best, Better.

You can find all of their products here at The Simple Grocer if you want to support of friend’s and quality, healthy meat products!

  • Neil in the front and Ty in the back left corner working at our branding.
  • Neil bringing a calf to the branding iron.
Healthy Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
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Healthy Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Recipe by Paige MurrayCourse: MainCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

6

servings
Prep time

5

minutes
Cooking time

1

hour 
Calories

403

kcal
Protein

29 g

Fats

27 g

Carbs

24 g

Ingredients

  • 3 large sweet potatoes

  • 1 pound sausage of choice (I like Pederson’s Natural Farms Hot or Italian Pork Breakfast or Turkey Sausage)

  • 1 onion

  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic

  • 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning

  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

  • 3/4 cup full fat coconut milk, water or beef broth

  • 2 large handfuls of spinach or spinach & baby kale mix

  • 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt and black pepper

  • Optional Toppings

  • Shredded cheese

  • Plain Greek Yogurt

  • Sour Cream

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 500.
  • Wash sweet potatoes and prick with a fork. Wrap tightly with tin foil.
  • Place sweet potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet.
  • Bake at 500 for one hour or until soft when you squeeze them.
  • While the potatoes are cooking brown you sausage in a skillet over medium high heat.
  • When sausage is almost cooked through, add the onion to the skillet and sauté 5 minutes longer.
  • Stir in the garlic and sauté for one more minute.
  • Stir in the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper & pecans.
  • Stir in the coconut milk, water or beef broth over medium high heat.
  • Stir in the spinach and cover the skillet with a lid. Turn heat down to medium.
  • Let simmer about 5 more minutes until the spinach is wilted, stirring a couple of times.
  • When the potatoes are done, carefully unwrap as they will be hot and cut them in half.
  • Place half of a sweet potato on a plate and lightly mash with a fork.
  • Add the sausage mixture to the top of the sweet potato.
  • Top with cheese, greek yogurt or sour cream if desired.

Notes

  • Nutrition calculated based on using 3/4 cup full fat coconut milk and Pederson’s Natural Farms Hot Breakfast Sausage and no toppings.
  • Nutrition for the recipe using Jennie-O Hot Turkey Breakfast Sausage and 3/4 cup of water and no toppings: 293 Calories, 31 G protein, 15 G fat and 24 G Carbs.
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