Roasted Sweet Potato — Chickpea Pitas — Something Worth Making When You Have the Time

April is almost done and I keep waiting to feel like I have adjusted to this and instead I feel like I am adjusting to adjusting, if that makes sense. Every week is different. Every week the shape of things shifts slightly. Ryan says the city feels different too — fewer calls of some kinds, more of others. People are sick in ways the city has not seen before and he is in the middle of it and I am at home making soup and teaching children over the phone and neither of us chose this but here we are, doing it.

I made a big batch of hummus this week, from scratch, because I had dried chickpeas and a jar of tahini I bought at the Middle Eastern grocery on Western Ave before the lockdown and approximately nothing else exciting in the fridge. I cooked the chickpeas until they were falling apart, blended them with the tahini and lemon and garlic, and made something so much better than the stuff in the plastic container at Aldi that I will never go back. Served it with pita chips I made from flatbread I also made from scratch, because I apparently had the time.

Kristin called from New York on Saturday. She works in a law firm but her building is closed and she is working from her apartment, which she describes as suitable for one person who is not actually there very much. She is there a lot now. She sounded tired in a way she does not usually admit to being tired. I told her about the hummus and she asked me to mail her some. I said I could not mail hummus. She said she knew, she was just tired of her own cooking. I said we will eat hummus together when this is over and she said okay, hold you to that.

The blog post this week was the hummus — from-scratch version with dried chickpeas — and the overwhelming response was: I did not know you could do that. You can. It takes planning and a blender and that is all. A lot of the comments this week were people who had never cooked much before the lockdown who are now cooking every day. I did not set out to teach people to cook. But I will take it.

The hummus I made this week did not exist in a vacuum — once I had it, warm and lemony and sitting in a bowl on the counter, I wanted to build a whole meal around it, something that made the chickpea the point instead of just the side. These roasted sweet potato and chickpea pitas are exactly that: golden chickpeas and caramelized sweet potato tucked into warm pita, the whole thing anchored by that thick layer of from-scratch hummus I now cannot stop making. It is the kind of meal that feels like you did something real, even on a week when real felt hard to come by.

Roasted Sweet Potato & Chickpea Pitas

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 1 1/2 cups cooked from dried)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 4 pita breads, warmed
• 3/4 cup hummus (store-bought or homemade from dried chickpeas)
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• Optional: crumbled feta cheese for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Heat your oven to 425°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Season the vegetables. In a large bowl, toss the sweet potato cubes and chickpeas with 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper until evenly coated.
3. Roast. Spread the sweet potato and chickpea mixture in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Roast for 25–30 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the sweet potatoes are tender and beginning to caramelize and the chickpeas are lightly crisp.
4. Make the lemon yogurt. While the vegetables roast, whisk together the Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
5. Warm the pitas. In the last 5 minutes of roasting, wrap the pita breads in foil and place them in the oven to warm through, or heat them directly over a gas burner for 30 seconds per side.
6. Assemble. Spread a generous layer of hummus inside each warm pita. Spoon in the roasted sweet potato and chickpea mixture. Top with a drizzle of lemon yogurt, red onion slices, fresh parsley, and feta if using.
7. Serve immediately. These are best eaten warm, fresh from assembly, with extra hummus on the side for dipping.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 16g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 71g | Fiber: 10g | Sodium: 540mg