These steam-then-roasted sweet potatoes are my latest obsession. They take less than five minutes to prep, do their thing in the oven for a little under an hour, and are equally delicious served just as-is or all dressed up as I am showing you here.
The potato cooking method itself comes from Nik Sharma in his cookbook The Flavor Equation. After halving your sweet potatoes lengthwise, you spread or dollop the flesh side with butter and seasoning, place them on a sheet pan flesh side up then seal the pan tightly with tin foil. You then stick them in the oven to steam-roast for about 25 minutes before uncovering, flipping and returning them to the oven for another 25 minutes or so. The flesh side browns and crisps and the potatoes become more concentrated in flavor. Moist and crisp? This method makes that possible.
In addition, the beauty of that long roast is that you have plenty of time to pull together various bases or toppings. Here, I prep enough odds and ends for a salad substantial enough to serve as a meal. But you could pare it back to be just the sweet potatoes, mint, crumbled goat cheese, toasted nut and tahini drizzle. Or really pare the toppings back to just mint and tahini drizzle. You know how easily I get carried away.
Here are a few other ideas:
- Follow Nik’s original recipe, Baked Sweet Potatoes with Maple Crème Fraiche via Food52.
- Sweet potatoes + base of burrata + fresh or roasted figs + basil + toasted hazelnuts + drizzle of good balsamic
- Sweet potatoes + base of full fat Greek yogurt seasoned with lemon zest, salt/pepper + pomegranate arils + mint + toasted almonds + squeeze of lemon juice
- Sweet potatoes + black beans + crumbled feta + cilantro/scallions + pepitas + lime wedges
- Sweet potatoes + avocado + quick pickled shallot + sliced cucumber + cilantro + sesame tahini dressing
I could keep going and now that I’m writing these down, will probably make all of them in the coming months.
Here are a few little nutrition tidbits:
- I’m full-on team carb to begin with and feel extra good when that carb comes from healthy, high-fiber whole grains or tubers like this. I count something like a potato as 50/50 carb/veg; I might serve a little of it with a grain bowl but, more often than not, I count it as my starch and pair it with other vegetables. Then I feel virtuous that I’ve surpassed my veg quota for that meal.
- Plus, did you know the (natural) color of something is indicative of its vitamin/mineral content? Like carrots, sweet potatoes are crazy high in vitamin A but also a great source if vitamin C. They are also full of gut-filling fiber, which most of us need more of.
- Lots of the good stuff is the skin, so eat that too.
- Someone who is reading this is wondering about the butter. Listen, a) it’s not that much and b) a little bit of butter is totally conducive to a healthy diet. It adds a ton of browned-butter-flavory goodness. I have no qualms using ingredients like butter, cheeses, nuts and oils to make healthy things like vegetables taste even better.
Really, no need to think about these nutrition details. This is a recipe for a vegetable. Enough said. Everyone should eat more vegetables (even starchy ones!) and this is a truly mouth-watering way to do it.
Xoxo Laura
BROWN BUTTER STEAM-ROASTED SWEET POTATO, ARUGULA AND DATE SALAD WITH TAHINI DRIZZLE
Ingredients
For the sweet potatoes…
- 4 medium sweet potatoes
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- Kosher salt and pepper
For the tahini drizzle…
- ½ cup tahini
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon (reserve the zest)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 fat garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup+ water
For the salad…
- ~15 oz can chickpeas, drained and patted dry
- Evoo
- Optional: ½ tsp smoked paprika and granulated garlic
- 5 oz arugula, washed and dried
- ½ cup toasted almonds, chopped
- ½ cup pitted dates, chopped
- Big handful fresh mint leaves (plus cilantro if you have it)
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- 4 oz fresh goat cheese, crumbled
Method:
Sweet potatoes….
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a sheet tray with parchment paper. Halve your sweet potatoes lengthwise. Spread or dollop each half of the flesh side with ½ tbsp butter. Season generously with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Now seal the sheet tray tightly with tin foil. Place on your highest oven shelf and roast for 25 minutes. The sweet potato halves should be nicely softened at this point. Remove the sheet tray from the oven and uncover. Flip the potatoes flesh side down and return to your oven’s lowest rack to cook for an additional 25 minutes. If your oven runs REALLY hot, check after 20 minutes. You want your sweet potatoes to be soft all the way through and the fleshly side to be deeply golden, maybe even bordering on a little charred in some areas. Remove from the oven to cool on the sheet tray for 10 minutes or so.
- While the sweet potatoes are roasting, ready your other ingredients.
Tahini Drizzle…
- Mix together the tahini, lemon juice (zest it first and reserve!), maple syrup, garlic, salt and red pepper flakes. Thin with ¼ cup+ water. You want it to be drizzle-able like a typical vinaigrette. It will thicken as it sits so you might need to add another tbsp of water right before serving.
Crispy chickpeas…
- Toss chickpeas with a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If you want to amp up their flavor, add a half tsp of smoked paprika and a few dashes of granulated garlic. Roast above the sweet potatoes for the final 25 minutes, shaking the pan halfway through. Cool for 10 minutes of so.
Assemble the salad….
- On a large, shallow platter, make a bed of arugula. Distribute the sweet potatoes throughout the arugula, then shower the salad with the crispy chickpeas, almonds, dates, mint, scallions and crumbled goat cheese. Finish with the reserved lemon zest. Right before eating, drizzle generously with the tahini drizzle.
Though it might not look as beautiful, leftovers of this salad will taste A++ for several days straight from the fridge.
Serves 4 people