Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes

Sunshine has been all I crave lately. After a very snowy Thanksgiving week and a few weeks of fighting a cold, I feel like I’ve barely spent anytime outside over the last month. It’s getting to me. Staying home to cook all day is one of my favorite activities—but only if I’ve gotten enough fresh air, too. Otherwise, I just feel stir crazy. Next week, my office closed for the whole week (!!), so I am hoping to flip-flop my outside time issue. Miraculously, it’s suppose to be a sunny week… so sunshine, here I come!

Here is a holiday/winter side dish with a little sunshine built in, in the form of bright citrus juice: Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes. They are slow roasted with a bit of butter, maple syrup (just a touch!) and orange juice. Each bite is a mix of sweet, salty, starchy and acidic.

Happy holidays!

P.S., If I know anything about you all, it’s that you love sweet potatoes. This roasted sweet potato salad is the most popular recipe on Foraged Dish! (Or is it the goat cheese?)

Citrus Butter Sweet Potatoes

Published December 19, 2019 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 4-6   |    Active Time: 70 minutes

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Ingredients:

3 medium-sized sweet potatoes

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Zest and juice of 1/2 an orange

1-2 generous pinches of salt

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

1-2 tablespoons minced Italian parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. While the oven preheats, place a baking dish (about 9x9 inches) in the oven with the 2 tablespoons of butter in it—this will melt the butter. When butter is melted (just a few minutes) remove from oven and set aside.
2. Wash the sweet potatoes, and then optionally, peel them. I like to roughly peel them, leaving a bit of skin on. Chop sweet potatoes into about 1-inch thick by 2-inch long pieces.
3. Add maple syrup, orange zest, orange juice, and salt to the baking mix and stir everything together. Add sweet potatoes, and use a rubber spatula to mix them in the maple-butter mixture until coated.
4. Cover top of pan with foil, and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove foil from pan and continue to bake for another 30 minutes. Sweet potatoes should be browning on the edges, and extremely soft when done. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.
5. Season with black pepper to your preferences, and garnish with minced parsley.

Instant Pot Moroccan Stew with Chicken, Quinoa, Chickpeas & Sweet Potato

An unopened bottle of orange blossom water had been occupying precious real estate in our fridge for months as I debated the best thing to do with it. Finally I opened the bottle, just to smell. One whiff is all it took, and my thoughts were drifting away on a cloud of delicate blooms — soft and white, immensely fragrant. From that cloud, I landed in a darkly lit room, sitting at a large round table surrounded by smiling faces. My tenth birthday party.

We perch on round, gilded pillows at a low table. Silky fabrics hang from the ceiling, lining the walls and giving the room a sense of mystery. Someone has given me a warm, floral-scented cloth for cleaning my hands. A waiter is sprinkling us ceremoniously with orange blossom water, and the droplets land on my shoulders like the sweetest rain that ever rained. Talk about feeling like Queen for the day.

There are candles artfully lighting the space, but the most notable ones are balancing on a women’s body. A belly dancer. She gracefully juggles fire from her head to her elbows and back again, never missing a beat. We eat couscous, chicken with almonds, and b’stella pastry (a dish my dad would later take to making at home).

When it is time for tea, it is time for the greatest show of all. The waiter stacks drinking flutes in a pyramid. He makes a show of pouring the mint concoction from an ornate tea pot, starting with the top glass, and pouring until it pools over, filling the next two. The cascade continues, until each glass is full. (In my mind, the memory is almost a dream-state. I can’t quite figure out the physics of these glasses. How is it that they only spill in two directions? Did they have little spouts? Did he actually pour into glasses individually, and it is my memory that falters?)

We each take a glass and sip. It is, to this day, glorified as the best cup of mint tea I’ve ever had.

To say the least, I’ve been on a Moroccan food kick since I stole a breath of that orange blossom water in the fridge. I bought The Food of Morocco (affiliate link) and searched for something reminiscent of that day. I bought harissa paste and slivered almonds and actually started to use the orange blossom water.

The flavors of Moroccan food are so different from what you find in other cuisines. Flowers take on a large role. Both roses and orange blossoms. Herbs are used fresh. Citrus is a star of the show. Lamb, goat, cumin, paprika; Roses, pomegranate, dried fruits.

But, this stew is not traditional. It was never supposed to be. Rather, it’s approachable. It’s a one-pot wonder that has been Instant Pot-ized, and everyday dinner-ized. It doesn’t ask you to buy a bottle of orange blossom water, which you would surely have to get at a specialty store. It also calls for quinoa in place of couscous (Couscous is a hand rolled pasta, so not GF, despite it’s millet-y looking appearance). The recipe calls for ingredients you know, but combines them with Moroccan flare in mind. Cumin — lots of cumin. Paprika. Turmeric. And cinnamon, a small amount, something we rarely add to savory dishes here in the US.

For the curious: The restaurant I had my tenth birthday at, Boulder’s Mataam Fez, has since closed. There is a Mataam Fez in Denver that provides a similar (but IMO, not quite as magical) experience. Plan to make an evening of it.

Instant Pot Moroccan Stew with Chicken, Quinoa, Chickpeas & Sweet Potato

Published March 5, 2019 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients:

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ginger, minced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 sweet potato, diced

2 large carrots, diced

1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, cubed

1 16-ounce can chickpeas, strained

1 16-ounce can diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

3 cups chicken broth

1/3 cup currants

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cumin

Pinch of ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

For serving: minced parsley or cilantro

Directions:

1. In the bottom of an Instant Pot, heat coconut oil using the Sauté setting. When oil glistens, add onion, garlic, ginger and celery and sauté until onion is transparent.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to combine.
3. Secure lid on Instant Pot and press the “Manual” button. Set to “high pressure” (labeled “more” on some models) and set timer for 1 minute with vent in the sealed position.
4. When the timer goes off, turn off the Instant Pot and allow it to set for 10 minutes with out releasing the steam. This will ensure the quinoa is cooked through.
5. After 10 minutes, release any remaining pressure. Stir, and ladle into serving bowls. Garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Cranberries, Walnuts, and Goat Cheese

You know that feeling the week after the holiday season, or a vacation, when you just want a bowl full of veggies, because you haven’t had enough recently? Because I do! And salads like this are the answer. A bowl full of greens, but also sustenance — sweet potatoes, walnuts and goat cheese!

This salad is one even veg-haters will like (said it already, but: potatoes, cheese, nuts… I mean is it even a salad? You don’t have to tell them there’s — ehem - kale under all those potatoes). The whole thing is drizzled with an apple cider vinaigrette which has shallots and dijon mustard and even a little bit of honey, for just the right balance of sweet and acid. It’s a pretty classic vinaigrette and one that you can use on just about any kind of salad or with any veggie (not just this salad!).

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Cranberries, Walnuts, and Goat Cheese

Published January 8, 2018 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 50 minutes

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Ingredients:

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, roughly diced

1 tablespoon oil, such as avocado

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

6 cups kale, stems removed and torn into bite-sized pieces

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup walnut pieces, toasted

1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles

For the vinaigrette:

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon minced shallot

1 teaspoon honey

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/16 teaspoon salt

1/16 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Roast sweet potatoes: Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss potatoes in 1 tablespoon oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a sheet pan. Roast in oven for 40-45 minutes, until sweet potatoes are soften all the way through and crisping on the edges. Set aside to cool.
2. Prep the kale: place torn kale pieces in a salad bowl. Drizzle with lemon juice. Using your hands, massage the kale with the lemon juice until the kale is bright green (Why do this? It makes is softer, easier to digest, and nicer to eat).
3. Top kale with sweet potatoes, cranberries, walnut pieces, and goat cheese crumbles.
4. Make vinaigrette: combine all ingredients for vinaigrette in a jar and shake to combine. Drizzle vinaigrette over salad, and serve.