Stuffed Sweet Potato Salad

So so good. And a nice change of flavor for our dinner table.  I rarely make my own dressings, so it was fun to feel a little more domestic by doing it with this salad.

Stuffed Sweet Potato Salad 
Adapted from this blog
 

Ingredients:

• 4 small sweet potatoes or yams, baked
• 1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup corn*
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
For the Vinaigrette:
• 2 limes, zested and juiced
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 2 teaspoons adobo sauce (I used Sriracha)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper 

Directions:

1. In a bowl, add the black beans, corn, onions, and cilantro. Stir to combine. 
2. In a smaller bowl, mix together the lime zest and juice, oil, honey, adobo, salt and pepper. 
3. Pour over the black bean mixture and toss to combine. 
4. Slice open the baked sweet potatoes. 
5. Stuff potatoes with the Chipotle Black Bean & Corn Salad. Serve.

Notes: I did not have adobo sauce, so I used Sriracha. It seemed to have similar ingredients. I also didn't want to wait to bake the potato, so I tried microwaving them. It turned out great! I poked holes in the potatoes with a fork, put a paper towel over them (always afraid of explosions), and cooked it for five minutes on each side (total of ten minutes). Justin didn't notice a difference in taste. 

Roasted Kale and Sweet Potatoes

This recipe is from here. Thank you pinterest. I made it just for me but Justin ate half of it. I used coconut oil and it was delectable. I also used dried cranberries.

Roasted Kale and Sweet Potatoes

from She Cooks He Cleans

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ~3/4-inch dice
• Bunch of kale, stems removed, coarsely chopped
• butter/bacon fat/coconut oil (or your fat of choice)
• 2 T dried cherries and/or cranberries
• salt and pepper
• balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400F. In a small roasting pan, toss the sweet potatoes with salt, pepper and enough coconut oil to coat potatoes and pan. Cover with foil and roast 15 minutes; remove foil and continue to cook until potatoes are tender and slightly browned (shaking pan occasionally, about 10 minutes). Remove from oven. [This step can be done in advance and the sweet potatoes set aside until dinner time.]

In the meantime, heat ~2-3 T of butter/bacon fat in a frying pan over medium high heat. Start adding handfuls of kale and toss in pan until wilted. Keep adding kale until you have the amount you’d like, cooking until wilted and to desired tenderness. Add the dried fruit and a dash of balsamic vinegar and mix well.

Add the sweet potatoes to the kale and toss until heated throughout and well mixed. Adjust seasoning and serve!

Grilled Sweet Potatoes

I love this. We make them every time we grill now to replace french fries. We're still tweaking how we do it, so I might adjust this post with time.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes
by Brooke Cheesman Hochstein

• 2 Sweet Potatoes
  
• Olive oil
• Seasoning to taste (eg. Rosmary and Basil)
  

Scrub the sweet potatoes clean, but do not peel. Slice potato into 1/4" slices. I try to angle my cuts to make them a little longer and more oval-shaped. I'm sure there is a term for that which I do not know. In a small bowl, mix the oil and seasonings in a small bowl, and then brush the mixture on each side of the potato. Place the potato slices on a medium-hot grill. Cook for 5 minutes on each side (This time will vary depending on the thickness of the potato slice and the temperature of the grill). Only flip once if you want clean grill marks.
Notes: I've been playing with different spice combos. Sometimes I use different peppers to give it a kick, sometimes I use more subtle spices to just enjoy the potato. I'm no pro on spices so it's more of an educational experiment each time I make these.

Sweet Potato Soufflé

I LOVE Thanksgiving! ! ! ! I especially love the food that only seems to appear on the table at this time. I made this for a church dinner the other night, and it was a hit. I made a few adjustments to my mom's recipe, not that it needed it. I just wanted to experiment. I'm posting the original recipe for future use. Thanks to my Granny for reading this whole thing to me over the phone :)

Sweet Potato Soufflé
from the kitchen of Carol R. Cheesman

• 3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans

Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add ½ cup butter. Beat until smooth. Spoon into greased 2qt. casserole.

Combine flour, sugar, 1/3 cup butter. Add pecans. Sprinkle over top of casserole.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

NOTES: I threw in a dash or two of nutmeg and cinnamon while I was beating the potatoes in my kitchen-aide. I'd seen a few other recipes which called for them and it seemed very holiday-ish. I really couldn't tell that it was in there, but it tasted really fabulous, so I thought I would mention that I did so.

I also substituted marshmallows in for the streusel on top. Add the marshmallows AFTER you bake the sweet potatoes, then put in the oven just long enough to melt the marshmallows. I also sprinkled some brown sugar on top because I thought it might look cool, but there was no cool factor at all. I'd leave that out next time. I toasted the marshmallows on accident, but I think I like it better that way.