I love lunch. When I worked in the office, lunch was my very favorite part of the day. I could go to restaurants and try new foods, chat with old friends and make new friends, and pretty much reset for the afternoon’s work.
Now that I work from home, I still love lunch, but I miss the camaraderie with my co-workers. I live in a food desert and meals out tend to take me a way from my desk longer than I wish. The handful of times I DoorDash-ed or Uber-eats-ed a meal were pretty discouraging, too. Instead of hot, fast and friendly, I got warm-ish food, prepared 20 to 30 minutes from my home and dropped off at the porch.
I came to the conclusion a long time ago that it’s just so much easier to cook for myself.
I keep a well-stocked pantry and there’s usually odds and ends that can be assembled into a respectable lunch. Over the years, I’ve developed a category of easy meals that I call “weird little lunches.” They’re usually served in bowls and often healthy. They often employ my favorite hands-off cooking appliance, the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker.
Incidentally, I don’t tend to share these recipes with people in my household because a) they’ll think they’re weird, and b) if they do like them, they’ll eat them and I’ll have to make something new the next day.
This weird little lunch I’ll share today has become a favorite – cooked sweet potato with hummus. It’s full of fiber and quite tasty. This recipe is a very high level version of Samin Nosrat’s version of Carla Lalli Music’s NYT Cooking recipe for Sweet Potatoes with Tahini Butter. The recipe calls for steaming instead of roasting, easily accomplished in my Instant Pot. The NYT recipe is pretty indulgent — loaded with tahini and butter, with the richness cut by a finishing hit of lime juice.
For the weird little lunch version of this dish, I substitute hummus for the tahini and leave out the butter. It’s not nearly as rich as the original, but I’m totally ok with that. This meal will carry me through an afternoon’s work with plenty of energy and no tummy grumblings.
In the spirit of Sam Sifton’s no-recipe recipes, I give to you my Sweet Potatoes with Hummus Recipe.
Sweet Potatoes with Hummus Recipe
Note: I use an Instant Pot pressure cooker to steam sweet potatoes. You might try roasting them in an oven or steaming them on the stovetop if you don’t have a pressure cooker.
Begin by putting a rack in your Instant Pot and placing clean sweet potatoes on top. Pour a cup of water in the pot and set the top to seal. Cook sweet potatoes 12 to 18 minutes, depending on their size, on high and set for natural release.
When sweet potatoes are cooked, remove from pot and place in a single serving bowl. Slip skin from sweet potato, discard, and smush the pulp about with a fork. Lightly sprinkle your favorite flaky salt over all and then set a scoop of your favorite hummus in the center. (OG hummus is always good, try red pepper hummus for a variation). If you need butter, go ahead and put that goodness on there and get on with your life. If you have a squidge of lime, send a shower of lime juice over all.
That’s it. Pull up to the kitchen table. If it’s your desk, too, sit at the opposite corner and take a break from screens. Enjoy.
More Recipes from A Cook and Her Books
Join the Conversation
Let’s talk about cooking and more on Instagram and Facebook. You can comment on this story, too. I’d love to hear from you!
Leave a Comment