Tag Archives: Sweet Potato

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

Posted on January 8, 2012 | 6 Comments

Choosing a recipe can sometimes feel like putting together a baseball team.  It is the home chef as general manager.

In each field, the objective is the same — to please the folks at home by offering them a winning dish while remaining within the allotted budget.  The objective is straightforward.  As is the theory behind it:  acquire the best ingredients, assemble, and serve warm.

But this process is never as straight forward as it seems.  Expensive ingredients, like high-priced free agents, may Continue reading →

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Sweet Potato Home Fries

Posted on July 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

These sweet potato home fries make a perfect side dish as part of a warm breakfast.  They also go well with a Continue reading →

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Posted in Breakfast

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Sweet Potato Falafel

Posted on March 21, 2011 | 7 Comments

When Caitlin comes to Cincinnati, she often takes a flight right after work, which puts her into CVG around 8:40 P.M.  That means she’s hungry for dinner.  And since I’ve also been waiting until then to have my dinner, it’s imperative that I arrive at the airport with a strategy in hand.  I can be very slightly grumpy when I’m hungry.

One of the problems, though, is finding a fun place that is not winding down at that hour.  In a city like New York, Chicago, or the like, it’s certainly not a problem.  But in a smaller city like Cincinnati, a lot of restaurants are closing shop by 10:00 P.M.

One afternoon, as Caitlin was readying to leave, I spent a few minutes on Yelp, and found my answer.  The Senate Restaurant was open until 11:00 P.M.  Better yet, it was downtown, a convenient location coming from the airport.  And finally, scanning the menu, I knew it had something I would love.  After I sent the menu to Caitlin, she also agreed that it looked good.  We had a plan.

When we arrived at the Senate, Continue reading →

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Posted in Entrees

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Simple Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

Posted on November 7, 2010 | 6 Comments

It’s no secret that I love sweet potatoes.  I’ve featured them mashed, baked, and grilled.  I’ve also folded them into phyllo dough, and into a bundt cake.

Out of all these variations, one of my favorite ways to prepare sweet potatoes happens to be one of the simplest: sliced and roasted.

As the days start to darker and the weather cooler, these sweet potato fries are a quick remedy.  Simple and quick to make, these warm and healthy fries are the quintessential comfort food, a sizzling side, and an awesome appetizer.

Last week, I Continue reading →

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Posted in Sides

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Sweet Potato “Pie” or Yamakopita

Posted on January 25, 2010 | 5 Comments

When it’s not ripping and breaking, or tearing and fraying, phyllo dough can be quite a treat.

Phyllo dough is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough, most typically found in Mediterranean cuisine.  Indeed, the dough is most often associated with spanakopita and baklava – but little else.  Which is perhaps why one of the leading producers of the dough has a running contest involving phyllo.

Always a sucker for a good recipe contest, Continue reading →

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Posted in Appetizers

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Vanilla Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Posted on December 7, 2009 | 2 Comments

If you know me, you know I love sweet potatoes.  So, when it came time to create a Thanksgiving menu, the question wasn’t whether I was going to serve sweet potatoes, the question was simply what recipe to choose.

I wanted something fairly simple to make, but that would nonetheless impress.  I also wanted it to be something unique and fun.  This recipe met Continue reading →

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Baked Sweet Potato with Maple-Pecan Butter

Posted on August 28, 2009 | 1 Comment

Sweet potatoes are probably the first thing I ever put in the oven.

I can’t quite remember how old I was, but I can remember the early fascination with the magic of baking.  I tore off a sheet of foil, set the oven to 420 degrees, and placed a hard, unattractive object into the oven.  There was no cutting, no slicing, no mixing, no peeling.  There was no other ingredient, and no other steps.  And yet, after ninety minutes, a sweet smell enveloped the kitchen and much of the house, beckoning me downstairs.  I grabbed the pot-holders, cut a tablespoon of butter, and sat down to dig into the soft, sweet flesh of a baked sweet potato.

I couldn’t have been older than twelve or thirteen, Continue reading →

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Grilled Sweet Potato and White Potato Fries

Posted on July 7, 2009 | 3 Comments

1PotatoB

It seems almost unpatriotic to serve a burger without fries.  So when grilling my favorite hamburger, I always make sure to have a  few servings of these grilled sweet potato and white potato fries ready!

These fries are yet another expression of my love for sweet potato wedges and/or sweet potato fries.  Like those recipes, these grilled fries are a healthy alternative to deep-frying.  Throwing them on the grill makes them quick and easy to make, with less mess.  The colors and grill marks Continue reading →

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Roasted Yam and Sweet Potato Fries

Posted on May 27, 2009 | Leave a comment

Yams and Sweet Potatoes

Like strangers on the same page of a phone book, sweet potatoes and white potatoes share nothing more than a common last name.  Both potatoes are, of course, plants.  But sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory family, while white potatoes belong to the nightshade family – sometimes called the potato family.  More to the point, sweet potatoes are roots of the dicotyledonous plant; white potatoes are underground stems (tubers) of the potato plant.

Yams, meanwhile, belong to the yam family, and are tubers of the monocotyledon plant.  But even though they are tubers, yams have a closer lineage to lilies, than to either the white potato or the sweet potato.  The confusion over yams Continue reading →

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Roasted Winter Vegetables

Posted on April 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

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Spring officially arrived a few weeks back, but from the look of it here in St. Louis, you would never know it.  Between a light snowstorm to start the week, and freezing rain at week’s end, the thaw of Spring remains in hiding.  Given the wintry conditions, I decided a few winter vegetables would make a suitable side.

Roasting over high heat gives the vegetables a crisp outer skin while keeping the inner flesh moist.  The  high heat also serves to caramelize the natural sugars in the sweet potatoes and carrots, for a sweet, yet healthy, cold-weather treat.

If you like, Continue reading →

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