Are you ready to blow everybody’s mind at Thanksgiving this year? This insanely easy, but super posh side dish is the perfect way to say “Yeah, I own side dishes.” No more marshmallow sweet potatoes or canned cream of mushroom soup green beans. We’re stepping up Thanksgiving this year. These sweet potatoes are lesson numero uno.
Baked sweet potatoes are one of my favorite props. They are filling, inexpensive, delicious, and can serve as the base for about a bazillion different flavors. This fancy mix of sweet dates, tangy gorgonzola, and crunchy walnuts is the perfect mix of flavor and texture to take them over the top. And while dates, walnuts, and gorgonzola may be pricier ingredients, they’re also super flavorful, so you really don’t need to use a lot to get maximum flavor.
Gah! I’m getting hungry just talking about them. They’re so droooooly delicious!
Date & Gorgonzola Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Date & Gorgonzola Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Servings 4 one potato eachIngredients
- 4 small sweet potatoes ($2.50)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 6 whole medjool dates ($0.66)
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts ($1.32)
- 1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola ($0.80)
- handful fresh parsley ($0.13)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the sweet potatoes and then dry the excess water from the skin with a paper towel or clean dish cloth. Rub the olive oil all over the surface of the sweet potatoes. Use a fork to prick each potato several times.
- Cover a baking sheet with foil and then place the potatoes on top. Bake the sweet potatoes for 45 minutes to one hour, or until they are soft all the way through (squeeze the potatoes to test for doneness).
- Allow the sweet potatoes to rest for a few minutes while you prepare the filling. Roughly chop the dates and parsley (and the walnuts, if not purchased pre-chopped). Mix the dates, walnuts, and parsley together.
- Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice them from one end to the other, lengthwise. Pinch each end and push in towards the center to make the potato pop open. Mash the inside up a bit with a fork, then stuff with the date/walnut filling. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of gorgonzola on each potato. Serve warm.
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Nutrition
Step by Step Photo
Wash and dry the potatoes, then rub olive oil over the skins. Prick each potato several times with a fork to allow steam to escape as they bake. You’ll want to use small sweet potatoes so that each one will be one serving. Use potatoes that are slightly larger than your fist. My potatoes were about 3/4 lb. each. (I intended to only make three, but had more than enough filling for four potatoes, so I wrote the recipe for four, even though the pictures show three).
Bake the potatoes in a preheated 400 degree oven for 45 minutes to one hour, or until they’re soft all the way through. You’ll want to bake them on a baking sheet, preferably covered with foil, because sugary juice likes to ooze out as they bake. That stuff will stick to the bottom of your oven and burrrnnnn.
The bulk bins at your grocery store will be your best friend for this recipe. I literally bought six dates, expecting to use two per potato. As it turns out, it was WAY more than I needed for three. I also used about 1/3 cup of walnuts and a handful of chopped parsley. If you’ve never seen a medjool date, look here. They’re sweet and delicious like candy.
I decided it was much easier to just mix together the dates, walnuts and parsley and then top the potatoes, rather than sprinkling each one on individually. I added the gorgonzola by itself, though, because it’s squishy.
And that’s pretty much it! The warmth from the sweet potatoes will kind of melt the gorgonzola… Yummmm
Such a pretty side dish. Dressed to impress.
And how do you eat it? Just mix it all together with your fork and then savor every bite.
I was a bit skeptical of this, but I’ve loved almost every single recipe that I’ve tried here, so I gave it a go and the results were delicious. I didn’t use the parsley (it basically tastes like grass clippings to me), and toasted the walnuts in the oven for about 6 minutes for extra crunch.
A delicious little vegetarian meal! I will definitely repeat again, and want to try goat cheese next time. Thanks for another great one Beth!
Hello and happy holidays. Really love your recipes. My question is….how is your whole baked sweet potato and sweet potato fries both at 400 temp and both take 45 minutes? Does the cuts such as cubes, wedges, fries not matter much? They all bake the same? Thank you for the cooking knowledge with whatever info you share.
For the fries you’re cooking past the point where they get soft because you want them to be a bit blistered and browned. If you were to just cook them until soft, like what you’re aiming for with the whole potato, it would be less time. :)
These were great! I couldn’t find gorgonzola at the store, so I used feta instead (which turned out to be a good thing once I realized gorgonzola is similar to blue cheese!) We found leftovers were great as a sweet and yummy breakfast the next morning.
This is magnificent. I can’t get Gorgonzola where I live, so I’ve substituted bleu cheese. Still wonderful. I’ve made it twice in the last couple of months, and it’s a great meal by itself.
Made these last night for company, along with the ginger salmon. Both were delicious, but everybody freaked out about how good these suckers were. So good, I had left overs for breakfast and lunch too! I couldn’t find dates in the produce section, but I did find them already chopped in the canned fruit aisle along with dried cranberries, apricots, etc. Easter is right around the corner, and I want to do the same thing, but in a casserole form. Y.U.M! thanks Beth!
where do you find gorgonzola for that cheap?! I can only ever find it for $5 or so, and this website claims the whole meal only costs that much! please help!
My local grocery store had it for that price. The whole container wasn’t 80 cents, but the portion that I used for the recipe was.
Blue cheeses are not gluten free. Think it’d be good with a different cheese like maybe Manchego?
Interesting! I wasn’t aware of the blue cheese/gluten issue. It looks like recent research has classified it gluten free, but it’s probably best for those who have gluten intolerances to be cautious.
Very belatedly, in case someone else is pondering this: I cannot imagine these NOT being delicious with manchego (my favorite cheese ever!) because it’s so good with both dates and walnuts.
I loved the combination of all the flavors. I did add bacon since I planned on eating it as a dinner by itself. The only thing was that I found it to be extremely filling…I could only eat half. I can’t imagine this as a side dish.
Also…now I have a whole container of the dates and I’m not sure what else to do with them. Any suggestions?
I haven’t cooked with them a lot, but I imagine they’d be great in anything that you’d normally use raisins or other dried fruits in (oatmeal, yogurt parfaits, bread, muffins, etc.)
as for extra dates….they are fantastically efficient meals when there is no time to eat and they are incredibly portable. A couple of dates and an apple and/or some almonds and you have a nice little meal on the go with lots of goodness.
These were excellent, with a beautiful sweet-salty-creamy-crunchy balance. I was skeptical about whether I’d like sweet potatoes with no butter, but these didn’t need anything else.
Had them for dinner last night – holy moly! Incredibly delicious! We stuck to the receipe, but baked the sweet potatoes at a lower temperature for longer to let it caramelize a bit more, then added all the goodies. Unbelievable! Instant favorite.