This month we’re talking about good nutrition and better health. March 24th is American Diabetes Alert Day, and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) is encouraging everyone to take their quick online Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test. The test takes about 60 seconds to complete. It’s important because 86 million Americans have prediabetes, and the majority of them don’t even know it. Type 2 diabetes has serious complications, including stroke and kidney disease.

The good news is, prediabetes can usually be reversed with diet and exercise.

And an important first step, the ADA recommends planning all of your meals at the beginning of the week. They also have a list of Diabetes Superfoods that have a low glycemic index and nutrients that most people are lacking. The Superfood list includes beans, dark, leafy greens, tomatoes, citrus fruit, berries, salmon, whole grains, nuts and fat-free yogurt and milk.

A few of those ingredients sound a whole lot like one of our favorite recipes, so we thought we’d share it with you:

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Superfood Bowl with Spicy Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 TBSP olive oil
• 2 sweet potatoes in 1″ dice, skin on
• 2 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1 minced clove
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 small diced onion
• 1/2 TBSP grated ginger
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 2 cups chopped kale
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 pint yogurt
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• Salt and ground pepper

Place the diced sweet potato on a baking tray, drizzle with 2 TBSP olive oil, sprinkle with the sea salt and half the turmeric and cumin. Bake until until soft, stirring every 10 minutes. In a pan, saute onion and garlic until translucent. Add ginger and chickpeas, mashing the mixture with a fork. Add vegetable stock, cumin, and kale, and cook until hot.

For the yogurt sauce, combine the second half of the turmeric, cumin and the last five ingredients in a bowl and stir. Top the chickpea mixture with spicy yogurt sauce and finish with chopped walnuts.

This is a delicious, warming dish that can be easily freeze dried. Just spread the mixture on a tray and process, then store in an airtight container. To re-hydrate, add hot water until it reaches its original consistency. You can also freeze dry the spicy yogurt sauce in the same method, adding water to rehydrate to the original consistency.

If you’ve commited to better eating during #NationalNutritionMonth, be sure to take the online Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test. The ADA also has a great list of resources that can help you make small, easy diet changes that can add up to big impact on your health.