Roasted Purple Sweet Potatoes Recipe

By: Tristan Guilbeault

Instagram: @tristangcooks

Roasted sweet potatoes have become one of my favourite holiday sides in recent years. A great alternative or addition to mashed potatoes, these purple roasted sweet potatoes can be served in their skins or mashed and are a fantastic complementary side to your Thanksgiving or Christmas feasts. This dish is super easy to execute and has so much sweet and savoury flavour. Using Japanese purple sweet potatoes brings beautiful colour to the table as well.

Yams are not what they appear to be. Sweet potatoes are very popular in the southern United States and are always a part of Thanksgiving. Served with a sweet sauce seasoned with warm spices and even topped with marshmallows occasionally, this dish is commonly known as “candied yams.” But yams don’t grow in the south and they never did. Yams are from West Africa, a large tuber capable of growing to the size of your thigh, they are more similar to cassava, starchy and mild in flavour. The African vessel “fufu” is made from yam that has been pounded to increase its starch content and couldn’t be further from a sweet decadent roasted sweet potato. Sweet potatoes hail from the highlands of Ecuador and Colombia, with many other varieties found south in Peru and north in Mexico. They were first thought to be grown in Virginia in 1648 and spread south because of their affinity for heat.

This is my version of the common roasted yams found in the southern United States. I have taken the same basic idea and added some Mexican inspiration in the form of salsa macha, a form of chili oil, as well as traditional southern pecans, roasted garlic and warm spices. Serve as a side that will surprise your guests with not only colour but flavour! Using all Amaranth ingredients this recipe is gluten-free, vegetarian, lactose-free, paleo and comes together in less than 1 hour!

Roasted Purple Sweet Potatoes

Recipe from Tristan Guilbeault

Dietary restrictions: Gluten-free, lactose-free, vegetarian & paleo
Total Time: 55 minutes | (Preparation): 5 minutes | (Cooking): 50 minutes
Yields: Feeds 8 people

Ingredients

● 4-5 Purple Sweet Potatoes (about 1⁄2 of 1 medium-sized Sweet Potato per person)

● 1⁄4 cup unsalted Butter, cubed (we recommend Rolling Meadows, St. Brigid’s Creamery, L’Ancêtre)

● 2 tbsp Maple Syrup (we recommend Uncle Luke’s, Everland)

● 1 tbsp Neutral Oil (we recommend Spectrum refined Canola Oil, Chosen Foods)

● 1 Cinnamon stick

● 3 cloves Garlic

● 1 whole Star Anise

● Salt, to taste

● Pepper, to taste

Pecan Chili Crunch

● 2/3 cup Pecans

● 2/3 cup of your favourite Chili Oil, I like to make my own, but Amaranth also carries great options with varying spice levels (we recommend Seven-Spice Mild & Hot Chili Oil)

Garnish

● Chopped Chives or fresh Cilantro

● Flaky Salt

Instructions

1. Check the sweet potatoes for any visible dirt and clean them if necessary. Make sure they are nice and dry before cooking. Rub sweet potatoes with neutral oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, place in a casserole tray or pie pan, add garlic cloves, maple syrup, butter, star anise, 1 tablespoon neutral oil and 1 stick of cinnamon (the extra oil is here key so that the butter does not burn). Roast at 400 for 50 minutes or until a knife can be easily inserted through the largest sweet potato. The house will smell amazing.

2. Make the pecan chili crunch. Add the pecans to a glass baking dish in a single layer and add to a 400-degree oven for the last 15 minutes of the cook. Let cool slightly then crush with the side of a knife, a mortar and pestle or a food processor. Don’t crush them too fine, we still want texture from the nuts just not whole pieces. Mix the crushed pecans with the chili oil and set aside.

3. Check the sweet potatoes, once finished take out the oven and place them onto a serving tray. Strain the butter from the bottom, discarding the whole spices. Slice the sweet potatoes in half and poke them with a fork, creating small holes so butter can seep in, then spoon over the spiced butter. Serve the pecan chili crunch on the side or add on top, finish off with flaky salt and chopped chives. Enjoy this delicious side this holiday season!

Island-inspired mashed imo

This dish may be served mashed as well, just ensure not to overwork the sweet potatoes as they can get overworked. The texture should be slightly chunky. Add in hot coconut milk to loosen the starches and bring a nice island flavour to the dinner table.

1. Continuing from step 3 of the instructions above, the sweet potatoes may be scooped out of their skins and placed in a bowl, add the spiced butter from the bottom of the pan and 1 can of warmed coconut milk, season well with salt and pepper. Using a fork lightly mash and mix together. Serve in a bowl topped with pecan chili crunch and chives.

*If you do not have coconut milk on hand, add 1 cup of chicken (or turkey) broth with a couple of extra cubes of butter. This will result in a creamier and more luscious mash.

Okinawan sweet potatoes

The Japanese Sweet Potato, also known as “Imo” is considered the cornerstone of the traditional Okinawan diet. Okinawan people are known for their healthy cuisine and longevity. The island of Okinawa is prone to harsh storms, rendering crops like rice obsolete in off-years. The people there needed food and sweet potatoes grew under the ground, meaning that these harsh storms would have little effect on these crops. A competent starch, it began to be imported from mainland China and grown on the island. Grown in China for similar reasons, in times of necessity with proper growing conditions sweet potatoes would almost always provide bountiful crops. The traditional Japanese diet consisted of almost 75% grains (mostly white rice) and just 8% vegetables, while the Okinawan diet consisted of around 30% grains and 58% vegetables, mostly sweet potato. The diet of Okinawa has changed a lot in the last century but the older generation often lived to the 100-year-old mark, with many contributing it to their large consumption of Imo.

substitutions

Any variety of sweet potato or “yam” like red garnet available at Amaranth may be used instead of the Okinawan variety I have used here. If you have a nut allergy or aren’t the biggest fan of pecans you can use other nuts like sliced almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia or walnuts. Seeds like pumpkin and sunflower can be used also.

Tips

Most sweet potatoes should take around 45 minutes to fully cook through, pick similar-sized sweet potatoes when shopping. If they are on the large side add another 10 minutes to the cook. However, if you have a mix of small and large sweet potatoes, don’t worry about overcooking the smaller ones, they handle it well and the texture remains the same. When toasting the nuts, I like to use a glass pan rather than metal because it will conduct heat evenly, in a metal pan often the nuts on the outside will burn before the ones in the centre are toasted.

Storage

Whole baked sweet potatoes will last up to 10 days in the fridge and may be warmed up in the oven or microwave. Mashed sweet potato will last 7 days in the fridge and can be reheated slowly in a covered non-stick pan or microwave. Pecan chili crunch may be stored in the pantry or fridge for up to 6 months.