savory smashed sweet potatoes
If you, like me, are not interested in that marshmallow sweet potato situation, then this will be a welcome change of pace for the holiday season. Nutty, rich, savory and just a touch spicy, these dudes will make you feel cool and sophisticated with relatively little effort.
yield 12 servings
riffing
swap sage for thyme or rosemary
replace honey with maple syrup
sub thinly sliced Fresno chili for calabrian chili
6 medium Jewel sweet potatoes
1 ts olive oil
8 T salted butter (one stick)
2 sprigs sage just the leaves
1 T Calabrian chili in oil
1-2 T honey
1 T sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar
recipe prep
Preheat oven to 400F.
In a baking dish large enough to fit all the sweet potatoes in one layer, drizzle olive oil over the sweet potatoes and rub it around with your fingers to coat. Bake until the sweet potatoes are extremely tender, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the sage and 1/2 teaspoon diamond kosher salt (1/4 teaspoon if Morton’s) and cook, swirling the pan occasionally until the butter is deeply golden brown – about 15 minutes. It will foam first and then once that subsides it will start to brown. Keep an eye on the butter! It can go from yellow to burnt fairly quickly.
Once butter is browned, remove from heat and immediately transfer to a heatproof bowl. Add chili oil, honey and vinegar and whisk to combine. Scoop out those sage leaves and keep them for later.
Once your sweet potatoes are out of the oven and cooled just enough to reasonably handle with some tongs, cut them in half lengthwise inside the baking dish. Arrange the halves cut-side-up, overlapping if needed, so there are no exposed bits of your baking dish.
Drizzle 2/3 of the browned butter mixture over the potatoes and gently mash them with the back of a spoon to create pillowy dollops of smashed sweet potato. Drizzle the remaining butter on top and sprinkle with sage leaves.
do it ahead Make the sweet potatoes a few hours ahead can be made ahead and kept warm, covered in foil in the oven (wait to add the last 1/3 of butter and sage until serving time) OR cook sweet potatoes 1-2 days ahead and then gently reheat in the oven, cut and and add all of the butter when it’s close to serving time.
