Is there a vegetable more kid-friendly than the sweet potato? A single hour spent roasting a big batch on Sunday gives you a head start on three very different meals this week: a build-your-own sweet potato bowl, a quick Mexican-inflected stew, and an anything-but-ordinary chicken soup.
In between you’ll make a tender, yogurt-marinated chicken dish and a big bowl of noodles tossed with herbs and green olives. Each night is so different, nobody will notice they’re eating sweet potatoes three times in one week.
You’ll find all the details down below. Here’s what you’ll need:
Pantry
- Vegetable oil
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil (optional)
- Cider vinegar
- Grainy mustard
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Curry powder
- Paprika
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- Sugar
- 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas
- 3/4 cup French lentils (about 5 ounces)
- 1 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup dry couscous
- 12 ounces pappardelle or other wide noodle
Produce
- 2 heads garlic
- 2 red onions
- 4 lemons
- 2 firm avocados
- 1 bunch kale or Swiss chard
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch parsley
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 bunch dill
- 8 large sweet potatoes (9–12 ounces each)
- 1 pound green beans
- 1 bunch celery
- 1大脑袋莴苣菜
Dairy
- 32 ounces Greek yogurt
- Butter
Butcher’s Counter
- 1磅新鲜香肠链接
- 24 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (about 12 pounds)
Bakery
- Crusty bread
SUNDAY:Sunday Stash Sweet Potatoes
This one hour of cooking time on Sunday is going to set you up with eight roasted sweet potatoes to use throughout the week. Let the potatoes cool slightly before refrigerating them.
MONDAY: Sweet Potato Bowls with Sausage and Roasted Chickpeas
Reheat four to six sweet potato halves (depending on how hungry you are) and use them as the base of a build-your-own bowl dinner. Each element takes just a little bit of work, but only dirties one pan: Rinse, drain, and pat the chickpeas dry. Heat a glug or two of oil in a large skillet and add the chickpeas, sprinkling lightly with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until crispy, then transfer to a serving bowl.
Remove the sausage from the casings and cook in the skillet until browned, then transfer to another bowl. Wipe out most of the fat and sauté a clove of minced garlic and the kale or chard until tender—add a splash of water to help speed things along—then transfer that to a third bowl. And finally, make a quick yogurt sauce to drizzle on top: Whisk together 2 cups of yogurt plus 1/4 cup of lemon juice and a pinch or two of salt. You should have plenty of this sauce left over—refrigerate it for tomorrow night.
Before you go to bed, marinate tomorrow’s chicken (use 12 of the 24 thighs) in the curry-garlic mixture as perthis recipe.
TUESDAY:Garlic-Curry Chicken Thighs with Yogurt Sauce, with Couscous and Green Beans
You’ve already got most of tonight’s dinner under control, so take advantage of the hot oven to set yourself up for two more nights. Pull out the chicken you marinated last night, andfollow the recipe instructionsto get it in the oven. While the yogurty chicken is roasting on the top rack, roast the remaining 12 thighs—simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil—on a sheet pan on a lower rack. To make the yogurt sauce for tonight's chicken, just stir 1/4 of the marinated chicken’s pan juices into the leftover sauce from last night.
When the chicken comes out of the oven, crank up the heat to 450°, toss the green beans with olive oil and salt, androast for about 8-10 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the couscous according to package directions. After dinner, remove the meat from the bones of the extra chicken—discard the skins, but hold on to the bones. Refrigerate the meat and bones separately.
WEDNESDAY:Mexican-Style Sweet Potato and Chicken Bowl
You’ve got ready-to-go sweet potatoes and chicken, so this dinner will come together quickly. To adaptthe recipe(which serves 2, so make sure you double it!), just omit the chicken while cooking the sauce, then stir in about a pound of the leftover meat you roasted last night at the same time as you add the potatoes. Cook until heated through. Swap some of the remaining Greek yogurt for the recipe’s sour cream.
THURSDAY:Herby Pasta with Garlic and Green Olives, with aGreen Salad
This simple-but-flavorful pasta dish comes together so quickly, we bet it’ll become a weeknight staple. (Skip the red pepper flakes if your kids don’t like spicy food.) Use about half of the head of escarole you bought—mostly the tender, pale inner leaves—to make a simple salad. Toss it withthis dressing.
FRIDAY:Lentil and Chicken Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Escarole
Remember those chicken bones? Tonight they help you make a quick, filling chicken soup—use them in place of the recipe’s carcass. This hearty soup will use up the last of the sweet potatoes plus the remaining chicken and escarole, too. Don’t add the sweet potatoes in step one since yours are already cooked; stir them in at the end to heat through. Serve the soup with crusty bread.
