I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with sweet potatoes. I love that they are extremely nutritious, full of so many vitamins and minerals – beta carotene, vitamins E and C, B vitamins, potassium. They are high in fiber and protein, and they are a winter staple that is also quite appealing on the plate. So much on the pro side of things. We’ve recently been finding lots of the purple variety as well, even more minerals, a ‘Blue Zone’ food, helping us live to 100 in good health. More pros!
And now, the con
But, as lovely as they are, their strong flavor is also really, well, sweet, and while most of my family is quite happy with that, I like my veggies to be a little less so. Thus the big con. How to tame that sweet dragon!
A little balance, please
I’m always contriving ways to tamp down the sweetness, usually by giving them companions to lend some balance, and to camouflage their aggressive flavor. My mom used to make salt and vinegar roasted sweet potatoes that helped distract from the sugar, more of a disguise than anything I guess. In this recipe, I’ve added a glaze that has abundant acid and a little bitter as well. The tart cranberries round it all out, and the orange provides a bit of a sleight of hand. I threw everything at that dragon.
Swap the squash
You can use any cubed squash or even turnips or rutabaga here. It is really tasty with just the glaze, but if you’ve got the time and the seeds from chopping the butternut squash, why not make a garnish out of them while the veggies are roasting? It only takes a few minutes.
Let’s fancy it up
I do enjoy this with a bit of goat cheese sprinkled in, feta would be lovely too. A tender green such as arugula added at the end will melt into the dish if you like. If you can color-coordinate your serving spoon, yet another distraction.
Glazed Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash
The veggies:
- 2 heaping cups butternut squash, cubed
- 2 heaping cups purple sweet potato, cubed
- 1 cup sliced purple onion, about a half a large one
- Large handful of fresh tart cranberries
- Extra virgin olive oil
The glaze:
- Zest of one large orange
- 1 tbsp. thick balsamic reduction or glaze
- 3 tbsp. orange juice
- 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp. Brown rice miso
- 1 garlic clove, pressed
- A few drops of orange bitters, and maybe a few more
- Few grinds of fresh black pepper
The garnish:
- Seeds from the butternut squash (below)
- 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch of garam masala
The extras to add just out of oven if you like:
- ½ cup cubed feta or chevre
- 1 bunch of arugula
- Any crunchy nut to sub for squash seeds
Preheat oven to 450 degrees, and place a rimmed baking sheet on the middle rack.
Prep your veggies, and make the sauce by whisking all ingredients together. Pour over the veggies and place on the heated baking sheet. Set the timer for 12 minutes, turn the veggies, and continue cooking another 10 to 15 minutes until everything is tender and browning.
Place in a serving bowl, and add any extras you like, or not. Garnish with the pumpkin seeds and a bit more orange zest.
To make the pumpkin seeds, place the ingredients in a small skillet over medium heat and keep the seeds moving in the oil so they will brown evenly. When browned, immediately remove from the pan to stop cooking and drain on paper towel.
Mom’s Salt and Vinegar Sweet Potatoes
Scrub potatoes and cut into thick rounds, Boil them in heavily salted water until just barely tender.
Let them cool and roast in a hot oven in bacon fat. Turn once. When browned, sprinkle with malt vinegar.
Note: When I’ve made these, I lightly smash the potatoes before roasting, thus giving them more crispy edges. The oven should be about 450 degrees, and I preheat the baking sheet and use olive oil rather than the bacon fat. Mom had a coffee can of it sitting next to the stove, and it was her go-to fat, especially to fry eggs.
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The bacon grease can remark brought back memories. My mom and grandmothers had a can of bacon fat sitting next to the stove as well. My mom would fry eggs in the bacon fat, as well as put it in her biscuits for the fat. She didn’t make flaky biscuits, just used that low gluten Southern flour to make soft biscuits. She used bacon fat for sautéing vegetables for stews and soups.
Yes Julia, that fat was used for everything. I remember a warm potato salad we all loved, and it had bacon and the bacon fat in the dressing.
We ate so much bacon when we were kids. Farm chores, then breakfast and then it was time to get ready for school.
We didn’t have a farm, but my dad could, and often did, eat bacon every day!
We had sausage sometimes instead of bacon. My dad would make sausage with another farmer, my dad would provide the beef and the other farmer would provide the pork. The sausage would be about 50% beef and 50% pork. They would smoke the links and it was so good. One year, they put to much hot peppers in and that was when I learned to like spicy food!
What wonderful memories, and the smoked sausage, especially the hot one, is certainly part of your food map!
The colours are so nice!
Thank you Marilyn. That first bite!
I love sweet potato but yes it is indeed sweet so adding salt and garlic and pepper etc adds a bit of savoury tang esp. if you add a spritz of lemon . Fetta would be a good addition.
The lemon would be great, you could swap out the orange in the recipe.
Interesting combinations! But these Salt and Vinegar Sweet Potatoes sound absolutely down my alley 😋
Thanks Rihana. The salt and vinegar are quite tasty.
Mmm, these look so good, Dorothy! I’m with you on sweet potatoes, I must admit we always use squash instead but even then we tend to tamp down their sweetness with spices and tangy flavours. I’m thinking your glaze would be perfect.
Thank you! It does help, still not my favorite but much better disguised.
Your sweet potatoes look good , Dorothy…I love the purple ones unfortunately the rest of my family don’t love them as much as I do…I think I may try this recipe on them and see what they say I think they may well like them especially with the addition of feta 🙂
When I make these, I have to add the feta! The purple ones have the most nutrition, a ‘Blue Zone’ food.
The purple ones are the most popular here and sold everywhere we don’t find many of the yellow ones but I love the purple one of my favourite veggies just mashed with butter and lots of black pepper and a little gravy…
Well, gravy makes everything better Carol!
Lovely recipe
Thank you !
I love sweet potatoes so these look delicious. I also liked the reference to the container of bacon fat because my grandmother always had one in the corner cupboard so thanks for the smile.
Every little bit of everything saved!
Thanks Dot for a recipe that I will add to my arsenal of sweet potato recipes. Dom will just about only eat this variety of potato and it does get a bit boring.
And a handful (or more) of crisp chopped bacon for us non-vegetarians types. 😂 Bacon! Can you dig it? 🥓
I’m sure most of my family would heartily agree!
Nothing is ever too sweet for me. 😉 But this recipe sounds brilliant!
Thanks Laurie! I threw the book at these little devils.
Yum!! There’s a restaurant in town that serves a sweet potato hash with a tiny bit of sausage and a sunny side up egg on top. That’s a good tamer, too, as I feel exactly the same way you do!
Oh yes, a sunny egg would definitely help to tame the beast!
This sounds wonderful Dorothy! I love sweet potatoes, they are so versatile~
Jenna
Thank you! It’s a bit different.
A very creative way to tame the sweetness. Our markets don’t carry purple sweet potatoes although they carry the small bags of mixed tiny potatoes with a few purple ones.
Love those tiny potatoes! And the red and purple ones have more minerals, and I think flavor too!
This is so pretty! I can see it served with a nice white fish fillet for a beautiful contrast!
That would be lovely!!
Like you I prefer a more savory sweet potato dish. I will have to try your Mom’s Salt and Vinegar Sweet Potatoes, they look and sound quite tasty.
Thanks Jan! The salt and vinegar is even better using the little marble or baby potatoes.
Im with you Dorothy, even I feel sweet potato and carrots and beets are too sweet to be called a vegetable haha. I could never get my head around making these into savory dishes. Now I add a lot of spice to camouflage them. Your salt and vinegar sweet potato sounds intriguing!
It helped Kalpana! Carrots are fine in my book, but parsnips! Oh, they are so sweet it is always a shock.
What a great combination of ingredients. This looks delicious.
Thank you Jovina. It ended up being quite popular round the table!
I’m a big fan of both sweet potatoes, or any color, and butternut squash, so love the idea of mixing them in such a tasty way. I can also see it served as a cold salad.
Your Mom’s salt and vinegar potatoes also sound so good!
I’ll be making both soon. 🙂
I hope you enjoy them Ronit! Mom loved salt and vinegar anything, and she really liked these.
I have never thought of using salt and vinegar with sweet potatoes – I may need to try it!!!🙂
It’s a little different, and unexpected!
I understand your thoughts on sweet potatoes. Although I like the color, my husband loves the sweetness it provides. 🍃🍠🥓
There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground!
🤔 I wonder why. 🤔
Looks delicious! I am going to make this soon.
It’s been quite popular, even with those who are not big sweet potato fans.
What a beautiful looking dish Dorothy! You created so many flavors! I love sweet potatoes so much that I bake them in a large bunch, freeze them and take them out one at a time to munch on. My husband doesn’t care for them and this ensures I can have one any time I want.
The freezing is a good idea! I could do that for my husband!
Hi, Dorothy – I’m like you. I like the concept of a sweet potato but I find that they are simply too sweet. Thank you for your tips on how to tame them. I will give this a try (my husband LOVES sweet potatoes).
Good luck! It’s a tough dragon to tame.
You had me at ‘sweet potato’!
Just adore it cooked any way; though I’m up for this recipe to be sure, Dorothy. It looks scrumptious…
Thank you my friend! So glad you love this healthful veggie!
Ah! You’ve said what I’ve been thinking all along! I do enjoy sweet potatoes, but sometimes they are too sweet. This recipe sounds great! I also love fried sweet potato (french fries) with some salt to tame the sweet side. Cheers!
Thank you! Most of my family love sweet potato fries, usually with spicy mayonnaise!
Hi Dorothy, I do something similar with sweet potato but I cover the veg with an olive oil and red wine sauce. It is very tasty.
The red wine sauce sounds lovely Robbie!
I love everything about sweet potatoes! It’s too easy to keep them in the “sweet” box, though, and I appreciate this tangy twist. I love using sweet potatoes in chili, and pushing the flavor boundaries with smoky chipotle. It’s another way to calm the sweetness. Now, if I could just get a crisp texture on sweet potato fries…
They do have a lot of moisture Terrie! But if you roast them like crazy, they end up crispy.
I never thought about tucking them in chili, that’s brilliant! I will have to try that next time.
Your Mom’s salt and vinegar sweet potatoes sound delicious and using the fresh butternut squash seeds as a glaze is a great idea! Thank you for sharing your recipes 😄
Thanks so much for your kind comments! I love starting a recipe with one of my mom’s old standbys, and giving it a bit of a twist of course!
The glazed sweet potatoes sound delicious—love all the ingredients in this!
Thank you Nancy! It’s a versatile group of ingredients!
These sweet potato recipes are different than what I’ve made. I will try them. Thank you!
I hope you enjoy them Mary! Thanks for stopping by.
Sweet potato enchildas. Rich and filling.
Yum, sounds delicious!
Actually, for years I have been making a similar sweet potato fry for breakfast. I always love your variations. ❤️
Thank you! My husband could eat them any meal, and would love them at breakfast.