The biggest barrier to maintaining a healthy diet can be time and convenience. That’s something chef Patrick Drake seems to have clocked a good while ago. Drake set up the 60 Second Chef online cooking course to help people cut down on the time it takes them to whip up a healthy and tasty meal. He is also one of the founders of recipe box business HelloFresh, which makes the whole process of preparing healthy and tasty meals even easier by delivering all the ingredients for specific dishes to your door.
Drake’s shared plenty of recipes with Coach over the years, but we went back to this one the other night and were reminded of how straightforward it is to make – not to mention how delicious. Versatile too: we went for frozen sweetcorn over peas, and gave it the bursting burrito treatment with a wholemeal wrap we had to hand.
Drake used to teach this nutrient-packed recipe to Chelsea FC youth players to help them learn some basic techniques (we guarantee you’ll boil and shred chicken again), as well as to make enough so that they’ve got tasty, nutritious leftovers for lunch for the next day or two.
It’s a bit different from the most common batch-cooking recipes, which generally revolve around making vast pans of chilli con carne or curry and then freezing them. (Not that there’s anything wrong with a vast pan of chilli con carne.) So make it tonight and enjoy it again at lunch tomorrow – one of the best things about this dish is that it doesn’t need to be warmed through, making it ideal for people who don’t have access to a microwave at work.
Mexican Sweet Potato Jumble with Shredded Chicken, Peas and Roasted Onion
Ingredients (serves four)
- 350g sweet potato
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 1 medium red onion
- 1tbsp Mexican spice (a mix of cumin, paprika, chilli powder, oregano and more)
- 1 cup peas (around 150g)
- 1 400g can black beans
- 2 chicken breasts
- Handful of spinach leaves
- 2tbsp chopped fresh coriander
- 4tbsp feta cheese, crumbled
- 2tbsp olive oil
- Juice of 1 lime
- Greek yogurt, to serve
See related
- Learn to Cook Online with the 60 Second Chef Patrick Drake
- HelloFresh Low Calorie Recipe Box Review
- A Recipe Book You’ll Use Every Day: HelloFresh Recipes That Work
- Rescue Your Valentine’s Day By Rustling Up This Easy Recipe
Method
- Preheat your oven to 220°C/gas mark 7 and bring a pan of water to a gentle simmer.
- Wash the sweet potato (don’t peel it) then chop it into 1cm cubes. Peel the onion and chop it through the root into eight wedges. Remove the core from the peppers and chop into chunks.
- Toss the onion, sweet potato and peppers in the olive oil and the Mexican spices, then roast on the top shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until crisp at the edges.
- Simmer the chicken breasts in the water for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
- Drain and rinse the black beans in a colander and chop the coriander.
- When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the water. Simmer the peas in the water for five minutes, then drain and set to one side.
- Shred the chicken using two forks - you want it to be separated into strands.
- In a bowl mix the roasted vegetables, chicken, peas, black beans, coriander, spinach, feta and a good squeeze of lime juice. Serve in bowls and top each serving with a dollop of Greek yogurt.
