Garlic Sweet Potato and Spinach Mash || Autumn Recipes

Last night I cooked up this nutritious alternative to traditional mashed potato and it went down a storm on Instagram and Facebook so I thought I would share the extremely simple recipe with you lovely lot.

Sweet potato is one of my favourite foods - it's so versatile. It can be chopped into wedges to make fries (my boyfriend's favourite), baked and served with a variety of fillings, or boiled/steamed and mashed to create the ultimate in comfort foods. Not only are these orange spuds packed full of fibre, Vitamin C and potassium, they also taste amazing - just as nice as their white counterparts if you ask me, and according to experts, regular potato will cause blood sugar to rise around 30% more than sweet potato!

This recipe also contains spinach which, at only 7 calories per cup, is an excellent way to get one of your five a day as well as loading up on various nutrients - there's a reason why Popeye swore by this stuff. 

So, for this recipe you will need: 

- 3 medium sweet potatoes

- 130g of spinach (washed and trimmed)

- 1 clove of garlic

- a tbsp of butter (you can miss this out if you're being extra healthy)

- a tbsp of oil 

- salt and pepper to taste

• First up, peel your sweet potatoes and chop them into small chunks (the smaller you cut them, the faster they will cook). Then pop them into a pan of salted boiling water and allow them to cook for around 30 mins. 
• Peel and finely chop the clove of garlic.
• When your sweet potatoes have around 5 mins left to cook (you'll know they're ready when they're nice and soft), add the tbsp of oil to a frying pan and cook the garlic for no longer than a minute - it will burn if you leave it cooking for too long on its own. After a minute, add in the spinach, making sure to coat it completely in the garlic oil. Your spinach should only take 1-2 minutes to cook.
• Drain the sweet potatoes and mash them with the tbsp of butter, and add your spinach. 
• Mash it all together and add salt and pepper to season.

Et voila!

I served the mash with some grilled cajun-spiced chicken and the two complimented each other perfectly! 

This recipe made enough mash for me and my sister, but we did have quite hearty portions so if you wanted to add a side of vegetables or salad and reduce the portions of mash, I'd say you could serve three or four people with this recipe. 

This is definitely the perfect Autumnal side dish, and will also be amazing comfort food on those cold Winter nights.

Would you like to see more of these kinds of posts on my blog?

Holly xo

Holiday Scrapbook

Hi everyone, I'm back from Gran Canaria and suffering from a serious case of the post-holiday blues, so I thought I would share some of my favourite photos that I took on the trip with you. I know this isn't a typical beauty/fashion post from me but hopefully some of you might like a little lifestyle post for a change :)

My boyfriend Sean and I stayed at the Lopesan Baobab Hotel in Meloneras in Gran Canaria. It was literally the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen - every inch of the design was African-themed, from the river full of fish and turtles that ran on the floor beneath our room to the intricate bedroom furniture and balcony railings. I was so impressed and would definitely recommend this hotel whole-heartedly to couples looking for a romantic break in a seriously idyllic setting. The food was also fantastic - we've never been so well-fed in our lives, all-you-can-eat buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner are not the ideal way to keep your bikini body trim, let me tell you.
We had such a great week tanning by the beautiful pools, visiting a wildlife park, watching a film at the moonlight cinema, watching the turtles in the hotel and getting rather drunk!

 

*VERY PHOTO HEAVY POST AHEAD!*

 

 

 

my gorgeous fella

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so much amazing food!

 

 

and amazing cocktails...

 

...which led to this drunken mess

 

Palmitos Park

 

 

I really love tortoises!

 

Amazing dolphin show, that would be my dream job

 

Nemo

 

 

 

Crazy afro bird

 

 

 

Grand Italia, the restaurant on the seafront which we visited two nights in a row

 

The Moonlight Cinema where we watched Django Unchained until 3am with blankets

 

 

 

Sean making fun of my photo pose -_-

 

 

 And my favourite photo of us on our last night

 

Hope this wasn't too boring and I hope you're all having a lovely Summer so far!

 

Holly xo



Week in Pictures #1

Cocktails with the girls | My stepbrother doing my best friend's makeup (brush was clean don't worry) | My laser teeth whitening experience - a total disaster (would you like a review?) | First sun dress of the year purchased | #TBT me and my little sister in 2001 | Revolution chocolate mess dessert | My new favourite novel | Latest Topshop lipstick purchase, 'Pillow Talk'


Follow me on Instagram @holly_allison for more photos