Sweet Potato and Labneh Dip: Your favourite spuds in scoopable form

If you’re the kind to regularly roast sweet potatoes and top them with yogurt, seeds and other trimmings, you’re going to love this dip. Here, labneh (or thick, strained yogurt) gets whipped right into some sweet potatoes. Top them with roasted pepitas and a sprinkling of crushed chilies, and you basically have your favourite spuds in dip form, ready for pitas and naan, raw vegetables and anything else you have on hand for dipping. Perfect for porting to a picnic, wouldn’t you say?

Sweet Potato and Labneh Dip

Ingredients

• 2 small sweet potatoes
• 1 cup labneh (or plain Greek yogurt)
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup pepita seeds
• 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp za’atar
• ¼ tsp sumac
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 3 tbsp finishing oil (or, your very best olive oil!)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425F degrees. Scrub the sweet potatoes and use a fork to puncture holes into the surface of the potatoes. Place each potato onto a piece of foil and wrap individually, then transfer to the oven and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, until they are soft. Allow the sweet potatoes to cool, then remove the skin. Place sweet potatoes, labneh and salt into a food processor and blend until well combined.

Toss the pepitas in the olive oil, za’atar, sumac and salt, then arrange them on a baking sheet in a single layer. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes, giving them a good toss halfway through.

Place sweet potato labneh in a serving bowl and use the back of a large spoon to create a crater in the top of the dip. Pour the finishing olive oil into the crater and sprinkle roasted pepita seeds over top.

Yield: Makes 2 ½ cups