Pecan and Maple sweeto potato

 

Pecan and Maple Sweet Potato

from drizzleanddip.com

 

This recipe is a flavour bomb of fresh herbs, sweet potatoes, zesty citrus and crunchy pecans, and has to be one of the best ways to spice up this lovely root vegetable.

It comes out of ‘Ottolenghi – The Cookbook’ and they mention that its origin is from Epicurious.com.

I never shy away from flavour so this recipe instantly appealed to me. I have had a ‘Post It’ stuck to its page for a while now, along with many other pages in this incredible cook book.
I was thrilled to see that Woolworths are now stocking red fleshed sweet potatoes. Having recently been in search of them for a recipe and establishing that they are quite seasonal and not always available, I pounced on a bag the minute I saw them. They are much healthier than potatoes because they are in lower in GI and have a lovely taste.

This recipe serves 4

I left out the sultanas and substituted the sherry vinegar with red wine vinegar.

• 2 Sweet potatoes (850g)
• 3 T olive oil
• 35g pecan nuts roasted and chopped
• 4 spring onions chopped
• 4 T chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 T chopped coriander
• 1/4 t dried chilli flakes
• 35g sultanas ( I left this out)
• Salt & pepper

Dressing:

• 4T olive oil
• 2 T maple syrup (I used 3)
• 1 Tb sherry vinegar (I used red wine vinegar)
• 1 T lemon juice
• 2 T orange juice
• 2 t freshly grated ginger
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 190 C, wash and cut the sweet potatoes into a chunky, small dice. There is no need to peel them. Coat them in the olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for 30 minutes. If you havent yet roasted your pecan nuts, you can do it directly after the sweet potatoes or whilst they are cooking on another shelf for 5 minutes. Put the chopped pecan nuts, spring onions and herbs in a bowl then mix all the salad dressing ingredients. As the sweet potatoes come out the oven, toss everything together and serve immediately warm. It can also be served cool at room temperature as a salad.
I totally love this dish and next time I will consider adding a little more chilli to give it a slight kick and perhaps a sprinkle of cumin to warm it up.