Loaded Beef Sweet Potato With Whipped Feta Recipe

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

A baked potato is an underrated meal. The fluffy, warm pouch of starch acts as both a bowl and a flavor base to any number of unexpected toppings. And, with elaborate enough recipes, the humble potato can even become a hearty, filling meal. Preparing a baked potato is a relatively hands-off process, too, meaning that you can let dinner make itself while tending to the many other tasks filling your busy evenings. The only way to make baked potatoes even better is to swap the traditional russet for its orange-hued cousin, the sweet potato.

Unlike very neutral russets, sweet potatoes are a little harder to figure out in terms of layering savory flavors to achieve the ultimate loaded spud. Mildly sweet and incredibly tender when cooked, sweet potatoes often end up in desserts or sweet-leaning dishes, so using it in savory dishes requires working with its natural sweetness. The result, as proven by this loaded beef sweet potato with whipped feta recipe, is a unique and delicious dinner option. In this recipe, sweet potatoes are loaded with seasoned beef and topped with homemade whipped feta and sumac-pickled red onions. The result is savory, tangy, and full of Mediterranean-inspired flavor all piled cozily into fluffy, perfectly-baked sweet potatoes.

For this recipe, you'll want to know a little bit about how to choose the best sweet potatoes at the store. Look for large, wide sweet potatoes with, if possible, a flat side that can act as the bottom. For the pickled onions, you'll need one small red onion, Champagne vinegar (you can also use red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar), sugar, salt, whole peppercorns, and sumac. For the whipped feta, grab good-quality feta (can be crumbled or in a block), Greek yogurt, heavy cream, lemon juice, and garlic. To make the beef, then, you just need olive oil, ground beef, oregano, paprika, parsley, and ground black pepper.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Pierce each sweet potato several times with a fork. Place on a sheet tray.

Roast for 50-55 minutes, or until pierced easily with a fork.

While the potatoes are baking, prepare the filling. To make the sumac-pickled onions, first add sliced onions to a jar or bowl.

Combine 1 cup water, Champagne vinegar, sugar, and 1 tablespoon salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes.

Pour the vinegar mixture over the onions, then add peppercorns and sumac. Steep until pink in color, at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.

To make the whipped feta, combine the feta, yogurt, heavy cream, lemon juice, and 1 garlic clove in a blender. Blend until smooth and fluffy.

To make the beef, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Add the beef and crumble until browned. Drain the grease.

Stir in 2 minced garlic cloves, oregano, paprika, parsley, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and black pepper and cook for another minute longer.

When the potatoes are done roasting, remove from the oven and let cool to touch. Once cooled, slice each potato down the middle and fluff with a fork to create a bowl for the toppings.

To assemble the potatoes, add the beef to each fluffed potato, then add the whipped feta and sumac onions on top. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

• Everyday Salad With Herby Lemon Vinaigrette Recipe
• Greek-Style Seven Layer Salad Recipe
• Roasted Veggie Pesto Quinoa Salad Recipe
• Garlic Parmesan Roasted Asparagus Recipe

If your sweet potatoes failed to crisp, it may be due to the skins being too moist or the potatoes not being cooked long enough. If you wash your potatoes before cooking (which is a good idea, since the skin isn't being peeled), dry the potatoes thoroughly so that there is no moisture on the surface at all. To ensure crispy skins, you can also rub the potato with a very light layer of olive oil before roasting, which helps with browning. When checking for doneness, the skins should peel away easily from the inner potato, and if they aren't, continue roasting until the skin is crispy and lifts away from the potato.

You can also speed up the crisping by adding the sweet potatoes to an air fryer, which quickly crisps the skins with a dry, circulating high heat. This is also a great way to reheat leftover baked sweet potatoes, and only requires about 2 to 3 minutes to reheat and crisp. You can also skip the oven entirely and make the sweet potatoes from start to finish in the air fryer, which guarantees crisp skins and takes as little as 35 minutes.

This recipe makes an entire half pint jar of pickled onions, which is likely far more than you need for this recipe. If you don't plan to use the onions for anything else, you could halve the onion recipe to make an extra-small batch of onions, but it's just as easy to reuse the onions in other ways. My favorite way to use pickled red onions is in tacos, which still works here, being that the sumac isn't overpowering enough to clash with any opposing flavors. Similarly, you could use the onions in pitas with beef and sour cream, or added to gyros with seasoned beef or chicken.

You can also get creative with your onions and add them to recipes like pita nachos, hummus plates, or burgers – dishes that benefit from the tangy flavor of pickled onions. For pita nachos, I recommend using toasted pita chips and topping with ground beef, feta, tzatziki, olives, and pickled red onions for a Greek-inspired gameday snack.

• Super Slow-Cooked Loaded Baked Potato Recipe
• Beefy English Jacket Potatoes Recipe
• Shawarma-Ish Stuffed Sweet Potatoes Recipe
• Buffalo Chicken-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes Recipe