Hasselback Christmas Sweet Potato

Hasselback means cutting lots of slices part way through a vegetable before roasting it. The cuts make the vegetable roast faster and leave lots of lovely gaps to fill with flavour. This sweet veggie goes beautifully with the fresh pop of pomegranate seeds and salty bacon. Sometimes Paul and I share one large sweet potato for lunch or I make a few as a Christmas side dish with baked, sticky ham. This recipe transforms this rather gnarly-looking veggie into something spectacular.

INGREDIENTS
1 large sweet potato
4 slices prosciutto or unsmoked streaky bacon (you can leave this out for a veggie version)
half a pomegranate
4 or 5 chestnuts
handful of pistachios (salted or unsalted)
1/2 cup of Greek yoghurt
1 red chilli
1/2 lemon
1 spring onion
sage leaves

• Pre-heat the oven to 200°c (180°c Fan) with a shelf set just above halfway. Using a short, sharp knife make narrow slits all the way along the sweet potato. The slits should go 3/4 of the way through the veggie.
• Put the sweet potato in an ovenproof dish then drizzle over a little olive oil and rub it all over. Grind over a little salt and pop it in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. The sweet potato is ready when you can slide a knife into the uncut bottom part of the flesh.
• Whilst the sweet potato is baking you can prepare your fillings. Chop the prosciutto or bacon and fry in a little oil until the meat is crispy. Drain and set aside.
• Use a wooden spoon to bash the seeds out of the pomegranate into a bowl. Finely chop the spring onion and chilli and stir into the yoghurt along with the juice of the lemon. Finely chop the chestnuts, pistachios and sage leaves.
• When the sweet potato is cooked use a spoon to fill the crevices with the yoghurt mixture then sprinkle over the chestnuts, pistachio, prosciutto and pomegranate seeds then sprinkle with the sage leaves and a few extra slices of spring onion.