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I am still trying to find innovative and different ways to use up my courgettes. I seem to harvest at least 2 to 3 every day at the moment and I also happened to have a beautiful sweet potato on hand so this is how a quick and easy weekday lunch was put together. Wanting to make it a little different and being inspired by Ottolenghi, as I was just browsing some of this recipes earlier in the day, I decided to add chick peas and harissa (Harissa  is a Tunisian hot chili pepper paste, the main ingredients of which are roasted red peppers, Baklouti pepper, serrano peppers and other hot chili peppers and spices and herbs such as garlic paste, coriander seed, saffron, caraway as well as some vegetable or olive oil for preservation. It is most closely associated with Tunisia, Libya and Algeria) to give it a Tunisian slant. Some fresh cilantro et voilà!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
1 courgette, cut into small cubes
120 g / 4 oz lardons or bacon, cut into small pieces (optional)
1/2 can chickpeas
1 cup fresh tomato purée or crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon harissa
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cilantro, fresh, chopped roughly

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F
Wash but do not peel a large sweet potato, prick it with a fork and wrap in aluminum foil
Bake for 75 minutes
Meanwhile, in a skillet over medium high heat, cook the lardons for a minute
Add the courgettes and lower heat to medium, cook about 5 minutes
Add the chickpeas, the tomatoes, the harissa and the salt and pepper
Allow to simmer about 10 minutes
Sprinkle with cilantro
When the sweet potato is cooked, cut it in two but not the whole way through
Spoon the mixture into the potato, add more cilantro if you wish
Serve with some plain Greek yogurt mixed with harissa
Enjoy!