Search This Blog

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Spice Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Why is it that so many sweet potato recipes call for gilding the lily?  They add sugar on top of sugar on top of sugar?  Then, all you get is this mass of sweet.  I'm not a huge fan of sweet meals.  My sister-in-law (who is a wonderful person!!) loves sweet meals.  She'd have ham, scalloped pineapple and sweet potato mash with sugar and pecans at least once a week.  I dread that meal. 

Labor Day we actually left the office at 2:00.  Whoo weee.  When we got home, I immediately made the peach marinade for our pork tenderloins.  Then, it was time to head to the herb garden and work on the weeds and mulching the walkway.  This is the first year for the herb garden and the weeds were winning.  We'd laid the walk with black plastic and had it weighted down with bricks and an assortment of stepping stones.  This was the day to actually start mulching the walkway.  We wanted everything to look as natural as possible and have been pretty happy with the outcome.  By the time we got done what we had hoped to finish, we were pretty darned tired.  I think exhausted is probably a better word!!!  Here are a couple of photos of the herb garden.  In the one, you can see on the right the "before we started tackling this project" look.  Now, to get the WHOLE yard looking like the part on the left...






Now, of course this means that dinner had to be pretty quick to fix.  Throw the tenderloins on the grill, whip up some peach salsa and figure out what to do with sweet potatoes.  I decided to peruse some cookbooks.  Ten or twelve later and either they had NO sweet potato recipes or they were all the gooey sugary stuff.  So, I made up my own...



Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato
1-2 t olive oil
1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground cinnamon

Directions:
Peel or not the sweet potato.  It really doesn't matter but keep in mind that the peeling has a lot of fiber and good nutrients.  I rarely peel sweet potatoes but did for this dish because the sweet potato was getting a bit long in the tooth.  Cut it into fry sized pieces.



Toss the sweet potato pieces with a bit of olive oil.  Make a mix of the nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. 



Toss that with the sweet potato pieces.  Roast at 500 for about 10-12 minutes. 

16 comments:

May Ling Wu said...

Love your garden, wish I could have one. Perfect recipe for fall :)

Fun and Fearless in Beantown said...

Yum! I like making sweet potato fries by tossing it in olive oil with pepper, salt and garlic powder. No sugar is definitely needed!

Magic of Spice said...

I love sweet potatoes anyway they come...but love them roasted most of all :)

Carla said...

I really liked this idea. I've got some sweet potatoes so I'm going to give it a try. I'm like you, they are already sweet enough you don't need to pile on the brown sugar, butter and marshmallows. Thanks for the idea. If we like them I will add them to a meal plan for my site and give you credit.

Larry Smoot said...

I too am in love with the garden. I will of course have to get some sweet potatoes tomorrow and make these. My partner loves them and we don't like them too sweet. I like the natural sweetness they get from baking. Thanks for sharing this.

Vibey said...

I was in the US just before Thanksgiving a few years ago, and was stunned to see the piles of sweet potatoes next to the packets of marshmallows at the supermarket! But before passing judgement completely, I decided to taste them at a restaurant and make my mind up properly. They were so sweet they set my teeth on edge! I asked what was in them, and was told they'd been mashed with butter and corn syrup, and then topped with brown sugar and marshmallows. Ach. What an insult to such a noble vegetable. But the bag of Terra Kettles Sweets and Beets I bought to console myself more than made up for it. :)

whatsfordinneracrossstatelines said...

Your garden is looking great! I don't love my sweet potatoes sweet either, if that makes any sense!
-Gina-

Tastemonials said...

My friend who has given me the magic Indian spice mix that I write about says it's also great on sweet potatoes. I don't know the secret combination of ingredients, but she gave me a big jar as an anniversary gift. She says I can only tell people it's like a chaat masala. Definitely not sweet. It's HOT!!!

Karen said...

I love the disclaimer about your sis-in-law! ha.
Am also very jealous of your herb garden...I have one measly pot on my patio. Nice job!

Table Talk said...

Wonderful spices to get you thinking about fall. I love roasted sweet potatooes.

Liv Wan said...

Your garden looks great and I'm not a big fans of sweet meal too. There is no point to add sugar on sweet potato. Love your roasted sweet potatoes. :D

Jason @ Jason's BBQ Adventures said...

Wonderful roasted sweet potatoes. Love the flavors added to the sweet potatoes.

Anonymous said...

Great recipe, my hubby loves sweet potato fries... thanks!

Becky said...

Your sweet potato fries look wonderful! Have you tried grilling the sweet potatoes? Just wash your sweet potatoes and cook in microwave for about 5 min., or until easy to slice. Slice in planks about 1/2", brush with olive oil and spices,
grill on medium heat until soft,Enjoy!

Larry Smoot said...

The other night I made the SPFs (Sweet Potato Fries) and they were wonderful. Matter of fact they were the best liked part of the meal.

At the last minute, I decided to switch up the seasoning though. The rest of the meal called for something other than nutmeg etc. I used cumin, crushed red pepper, chipotle chili pepper and then of course some salt and pepper with olive oil.

Wow, they were wonderfully tasty.

Anonymous said...

Everyone in my household loves sweet potatoes, so I can't wait to try your recipe! I totally agree with you, they are sweet enough, so no additional sugar is necessary