There is nothing like having visitors over to prompt you to clean the house. Am I right?
We had our first dinner guests for at least 18 months last weekend. Our house got a thorough clean-up! But truthfully, we cleaned then I cooked. That was the wrong way round. Because by the time I finished cooking we needed to reclean the kitchen floor! During our cleaning up process we also realised that we threw away our dining room chairs in the last hard rubbish collection. So now we had invited guests for a meal that they had to eat on their laps! EEEeeeekkk. That made me think hard about making a meal that wouldn’t end up spilling down their fronts and causing embarrassment for all!
So the menu was:
- Sweet Potato Stacks (the recipe you are getting today)
- Thai Chicken Salad
- Mango Panna Cotta

The other benefit of having guests is that it gives me a wonderful reason to try some new recipes. We never have appetisers or snacks in our house. Especially not ones that require cooking. Our snacks are usually fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, or something we can just simply reach for. But this time I wanted to make an appetiser/snack that looked colourful and pretty but also tasted great and could be eaten with your hands.
Sweet Potato Stacks
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 2 tsp quality salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 avocados
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ⅓ cup soft goats cheese
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220°C
- Cut up your bacon into large pieces and pan fry until crispy. Then remove from heat and place on paper towel to cool. When cool cut into smaller pieces.
- Peel and slice the sweet potato into rounds approximately 1-1½cm thick. Place on a lined baking tray, rub both sides of them with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and cinnamon. Then place in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Don't forget to rotate and flip pieces at halftime.
- Whilst the sweet potato is baking, in a bowl combine the avocado, lime juice, and approximately ½ tsp salt and smoked paprika. Mash until desired consistency is found. Set aside.
- Transfer cooked sweet potato to a serving plate. Top each with a dollop of avocado, a smaller dollop of the soft goat's cheese, then sprinkle with bacon.** Added extra; you could then sprinkle with finely chopped spring onions or roughly chopped coriander for a further flavour hit.
I hope you get the chance to have visitors around to your place soon. Don’t forget it is better to have dining room chairs!
Anthea Holder