Easy appetizer for game day or a dinner party- Avocado & Sweet Potato Bake with Gruyère Cheese

Avocado & Sweet Potato Bake with Gruyère Cheese

The best-laid plans have a way at times of not seeing the light of day. And in this case, my mouth is eternally thankful for my easily sidetracked mind.

Amen.

I entered the kitchen with a solid recipe. I was going to make guacamole and serve it in the halved avocados skins. Not bad, right? But then as I was scooping the avocado out I started to think, “Hmm, this would go well with the artichoke hearts I got chillin’ in the fridge.” And so in the food processor, I added the artichoke to the avocado with a drizzle or two of good extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. But then I had another idea, wouldn’t the creaminess of pan-fried sweet potato pair well atop the avocado?

And so, yeah.

That is how this went, I began building this recipe out of the thinnest of culinary air. Along the way, minced pan-roasted garlic and diced sweet red bell pepper put their collective thumbs out for a ride. Finished this exercise in kitchen spontaneity with shards of Gruyère cheese and there ya’ go. Take a look-see below for the details.

Ingredients:

3 ripe avocados
1/2 cup artichoke hearts
2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet potato, cut into 1″ cubes
1/2 cup sweet red bell pepper
1/3 cup Gruyère, shredded
1/3 Gruyère, sliced into thin shards.
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin
sea salt or Kosher
freshly cracked black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Chop, slice, mince, and scoop avocados, sweet potatoes, red bell pepper, and garlic ahead of time, this will save tons of time when you are ready to put these bad babies together. Save the empty avocado skins because you’ll need them to add the avocado mixture into. Scrub, clean and chop sweet potato into 1″ cubes, add one tablespoon of EVOO to a skillet over medium-high heat and brown potatoes, reduce to low heat and cook into a the tines of a fork can easily pierce the flesh of potatoes, about 15 – 20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm until ready to use.

Scoop the flesh of two (2) avocados into a food processor, add artichoke hearts, add two tablespoons of EVOO, 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper and pulse until smooth.
Spoon mixture evenly into 6 avocado skins.
Place halved avocados on a pizza stone and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and roughly smash the contents of one avocado and add chunks evenly among the six avocado skins.
Add two to three sweet potato chunks to avocado skins.
Add a little bit of the shredded Gruyère cheese on top and place back into the oven on broil to melt cheese.
Remove from oven and add sweet red pepper and shards of Gruyère cheese.
Drizzle with EVOO.
Serve with baked flour tortilla chips.