For those of you who think sweet potatoes are only for the holidays I'm here to call you to repentance. Full of vitamins and good stuff they're tasty any time of year--especially when they're combined with things like cranberries and syrup.A note here on the difference between sweet potatoes and yams. What we commonly call "yams" in America are actually just a darker, sweeter variety of sweet potato. What you see in the produce section are two varieties of the same thing, one is just darker, smaller and sweeter than the other. I prefer to cook with these smaller ones myself unless I'm looking for a dryer texture such as you'd see with a regular potato.
Actual yams are native to South America and don't often show up in American markets. They're popular in the Caribbean and South America, can grow up to seven feet long (What?? Talk about your monster tubers!) and are dark like the bark of a tree with purplish flesh. I think I'd know one if I saw one now, based on that horrifying description.
But regardless of this slight course correction, this recipe works better with the smaller, darker variety that we Americans erroneously call yams. Got it?
2 pounds of peeled and cubed sweet potatoes
1/3 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh cranberries (or if out of season use Craisins)
Mix the syrup, mustard, oil, pepper and salt together then stir in the cranberries and sweet potatoes until well coated. Pour the mixture into a greased casserole dish and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the potatoes are soft (but not mushy).
Here are some of my other favorite recipes for veggies:
* Sweet Potato Souffle
* Asparagus with Garlic and Citrus
* Orange Glazed Carrots
* Red Cabbage and Apples
* Maple Glazed Squash
Technorati tags: sweet potatoes, mustard, vegetables
25 comments:
I love sweet potatoes, I'll have to try this.
Hmmm...now this sounds wonderful. I LOVE sweet potatoes! Good stuff! Thanks.
Oh yum!
My daughters discovered sweet potatoes in the USA and love them any old way. They're great for thickening blended soups...
I just wanted to say HI! I read your post on misspelled words and saw you used to work on the Economics of Aging project. I did too! I worked at BYU on the project. It was so funny some of the things you came across....
I love sweet potatoes. It's good to have a new recipe to add to my small collection.
I love sweet potatoes. I'll have to try this.
I love sweet potatoes and love any reason (like a new recipe) to eat them. And thanks for the other recipe links. The asparagus one has me salivating =)
"call you to repentance"--you're funny! I was at a diner recently that offered sweet potato fries with their sandwiches--yum!
Just a note on cranberries: they freeze really well. I usually buy a ton of them when they're on sale around the holidays, then freeze them for use all year long.
I have never physically laid eye nor hand on the darker, sweeter variety. Ya learn somethin' new every day.
Thank you for this recipe! This year I am trying to make healthy substitutions in our diet, and one of those is replacing rice and potatoes with sweet pototoes on occasion. I will be trying this soon--maybe even this week! :)
My husband and I love to combine sweet potatoes, yams, yukon golds, and yellow onion (all chopped in bite sized pieces) with a bit of olive oil, seasoning salt, and homemade basil pesto. We roast it in the oven for about 45 minutes, and consider it the perfect side dish to just about anything. (Truth be told, I could eat it as my main entree at least twice a week. I'm such a potato fanatic.)
Thanks for sharing another way to use sweet potatoes. Variety is wonderful to have, especially when we have the same company over and over. =)
This recipe combines so many flavors I love -- I will definitely be trying it! Thanks.
You know me, I'm a fan of anything that has sweet potatoes in it.
I can't wait to try your recipe..just thinking about the Dijon - maple syrup combination makes my hungry.
Sweet potatoes are......basically too sweet. Having said that if you distributed in a souffle that might just make it palatable, if I only had to eat a spoonful or two......make that teaspoonful.
Cheers
I am the only person who eats sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. Do you think if I made this recipe I would have 'em all to myself? :-)
Great post! A friend of mine, just cooks her sweet potatoes whole in the microwave, slices them like a "chip", then tosses lightly in butter. We had to fight our toddlers for them!
Just a note, the true yams I have had, may have been dark on the outside, but were light on the inside. A Nigerian friend made them for me and they were quite delightful - not frightful. :-) I was interested to hear they have true yam in S. America, too - I had only previously associated them with Africa.
This sounds wonderful. We love sweet potatoes more than russets by far.
oh, yum!
I love sweet potatoes. I love any potato. The husband calls them Big Tasteless Lumps of Starch. But he's crazy. They are Blessings of Starch. Carbs of Heaven.
That sounds yummy! Another way my family loves sweet potatoes (and really simple) is to mash them with a little butter, lemon juice and pepper. I'll have to try your recipe, as we love cranberries!
You know, I love sweet potatoes, but I just can't do them any sweeter than they already are. I am that strange person who just cannot touch candied sweet potatoes or yams at Thanksgiving.
I really prefer mine in savory dishes, like in a blended soup with squash and oodles of garlic, or baked with olive oil and salt as "fries". Mmmm...
We talked about those enormous yams quite a bit in cultural anthropology. There's a certain tribe that directly equates a man's ability to grow a large tuber to his...er...bedroom prowess.
Great looking recipe, can't wait to try it!
Thank you so much for the vegetable recipes! Since becoming vegan I am always on the lookout for great recipes, and these look delicious. I can't wait to try them.
I love sweet potatoes any time of year! Yum!
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