Spaghetti with Sweet Potato, Spinach & Bacon
Sweet potato and bacon in the same bowl of spaghetti, built in stages. The bacon cooks first with garlic and onion, comes out, and the sweet potato cubes take twelve minutes in olive oil and oregano to go golden on every face. Spinach wilts into the gaps, a splash of yogurt ties the sauce, and everything folds through whole wheat spaghetti.
Ingredients
- spaghetti, whole wheat 3 ounces
- onion 0.25
- garlic 1 clove
- bacon 4 slices
- sweet potato 5 ounces
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- oregano, dried 1.5 teaspoon
- spinach 5 ounces
- yogurt, nonfat 1.5 fluid ounce
Method
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Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the package. Finely chop the onion and garlic.
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Stack the bacon slices and cut them into cubes. Peel the sweet potato, wash it and cut it into small, equal-sized cubes.
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Heat half of the oil in a pan. Sauté the onion and garlic for about 2 minutes. Add the bacon and cook for 4 minutes. Remove everything from the pan and set it aside on a small plate.
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Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Add the sweet potato and oregano and cook the sweet potato for about 12 minutes until tender.
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Add the spinach and the onion-bacon mixture to the pan with the sweet potato and cook until the spinach has wilted. Pour in the yogurt and heat for one more minute.
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Drain the spaghetti. Stir the spaghetti into the sauce.
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Season with salt and pepper. Serve the spaghetti on a (deep) plate.
Add the oregano to the oil at the same time as the sweet potato, not after. Dried herbs release more flavor when they hit hot fat first. By the time the sweet potato is tender, the oregano has had twelve minutes to bloom through the oil and season every cube from the outside in.
That twelve-minute stretch in olive oil is not just about texture. Research found that cooking orange-fleshed sweet potato with oil raised beta-carotene availability from under 1% to as high as 22%. Without fat, the pigment passes through your gut mostly untouched.
Sweet potato + oil beta-carotene absorption · DOIBehind this recipe
Is 33 grams of protein enough for one meal?
Research shows the old 30-gram ceiling has no basis in current evidence. That number came from models that only measured short-term muscle protein synthesis. Newer studies tracking whole-body protein balance found no practical upper limit within normal meal sizes. At 33 grams, this plate falls comfortably within what your body processes in a single sitting.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I swap the bacon for something leaner?
Turkey bacon or ham cubes work in the same pan timing. Turkey bacon renders less fat during cooking, so you may need slightly more olive oil in step 3 to keep the onion and garlic from sticking. The flavor shifts from smoky-rich to cleaner, but the spinach and sweet potato carry the dish either way.
Why does this recipe have 87 grams of carbs?
Two sources. The whole wheat spaghetti contributes roughly 57 grams and the sweet potato adds about 30. Both are complex carbs with different fiber profiles: the spaghetti brings insoluble fiber from whole grain and the sweet potato brings soluble fiber plus beta-carotene. Together they deliver 13 grams of fiber, which pooled research links to better appetite regulation over time.
Read the full evidence review
