It’s flat out winter here. So we’re cooking more and gardening less, a lot less 🙂  Here’s a seasonal recipe that I love, not just because it’s tasty, but because it’s easy too. The hardest part about this recipe is peeling the potatoes. But first, a quick story.
Last Christmas Eve at my cousin’s home I was helping prep dinner. My cousin’s meat parade was nearing the finish line and the side dishes were all sorts of undone. My cousin’s wife, who I dearly love asked for a hand. There was a pot of large chunks of sweet potatoes on the stove top no where near being done.  Water still cold. She looked at me and said  – do something with those. So, this is what I came up with on the fly.

Mike, (my cuz) had his roast chicken fresh out of the oven sitting right next to my sweet potatoes, so I just helped myself to the broth – straight from the pot. I then rummaged through their spice drawer for inspiration and voila – found the rubbed sage which is a fall spice most of us use in our Thanksgiving stuffing. A savory spice to balance the sweetness in these potatoes. Then just a smidge of butter and ta da! We had a hit.

Here’s the ingredient list

A pile of sweet potatoes (there’s 10 here -roughly 3 1/2 lbs),  1 cup of chicken bone broth, 2 tsp rubbed sage, salt and black pepper to taste, and 1 Tbs of butter – yes butter.
You can boil the potatoes with skin on and then just slide the peel off, or peel and then put them in cold water until you’re ready to chop and boil.

Actually just a little bit of butter goes a long way in this recipe. I just put the picture in because the Irish butter is my husband’s favorite.

The smaller the potato pieces the quicker they’ll be finished. A quick way to dice is to slice a potato in half, cut it in to strips, and then slice 4 strips at a time.

Boil until tender and a bright orange.

The hardest part is done. Just sit back, have a glass of wine, while you wait. A watched pot never boils, so chill time is an important part of this recipe.

They’re ready.

Sweet potatoes are healthy, when you don’t put a lot of sugar and butter in them. Old school sweet potatoes from when my mom was kid was a sweet potato casserole made with sugar and butter, layered with marshmallows and baked until the marshmallows were browned – ugh. Too sweet. This is a nice balance between sweet and savory.
If mashed doesn’t float your boat, you can toss the diced sweet potatoes with olive oil, or avocado oil (depending on which flavor you like), a pinch of sea salt and a teaspoon of cumin. Roast at 325 f for 20-30 minutes depending on how small you cut your potatoes. Eat them straight up or toss them in a salad or with a little grilled chicken. They’re versatile, easy and yummy.
A GARDENING NOTE – being the garden geek that I am I saved the starchy potato water for my potted plants. I have a just a few left from the summer. This will wake them up.