Can we talk about Thanksgiving menus?

[Daria]

I would love a really good, relatively easy, savory sweet potato recipe.  Can be mashed or roasted or whatever, but not something that adds more sweetness to the sweet potatoes.

 

Nothing that uses pork, or alcohol, please.

 

Suggestions?

What are you serving?

[regentrude]

Roasted sweet potatoes is the easiest and goes with everything. Simply cut in chunks, drizzle with olive oil, bake (can cohabitate with the turkey in the oven for a while). Nothing else required. We can go through a few pounds of these.

[regentrude]

When you ask what we're serving, do you mean the entire menu?

For the first time, I probably won't make a turkey. Several vegetarian guests, and the meat eaters aren't crazy about turkey - so probably just a turkey breast and a couple of London broil. That's the unimportant part anyway, it's all about the sides:

root of celeriac puree

sauteed Brussel sprouts with maple glazed pecans

red cabbage with apples, German style

candied yams

butternut squash- chick pea salad

a green salad

cranberry jelly

mashed potatoes

Edited November 11, 2017 by regentrude

[Daria]

Roasted sweet potatoes is the easiest and goes with everything. Simply cut in chunks, drizzle with olive oil, bake (can cohabitate with the turkey in the oven for a while). Nothing else required. We can go through a few pounds of these.

 

Do you ever mix them up with other vegetables?  Roasted sweet potatoes and . . . brussels?  Parsnips? Onions?

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Do you ever mix them up with other vegetables?  Roasted sweet potatoes and . . . brussels?  Parsnips? Onions?

 

Not the poster you quoted, but we do just roasted sweet potatoes. Often. My kids love them. 

[regentrude]

Do you ever mix them up with other vegetables?  Roasted sweet potatoes and . . . brussels?  Parsnips? Onions?

 

I sometimes roast different veggies simultaneously with the potatoes: carrots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower. 

[HomeAgain]

Dh does twice baked sweet potatoes.  He cooks them, cuts them open, and scoops out the inside.  That's mixed with thyme, sea salt, and taleggio cheese before being stuffed back in.

 

He makes them the night before so on Thanksgiving it's just a matter of heat and eat.

[Daria]

Dh does twice baked sweet potatoes.  He cooks them, cuts them open, and scoops out the inside.  That's mixed with thyme, sea salt, and taleggio cheese before being stuffed back in.

 

He makes them the night before so on Thanksgiving it's just a matter of heat and eat.

 

Recipe? 

[AK_Mom4]

Mashed sweet potatoes. Make them with a pound of butter and no milk. Ok maybe not a pound, but you get the idea....

 

Or are you up for something totally different? These are so yummy and a great savory dish..

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/stuffed-sweet-potatoes-with-beans-and-guacamole

[HomeAgain]

Recipe? 

There's a few more ingredients that I forgot. :)

 

 

This is for our little family:

 

2 sweet potatoes

4-5T butter (split into 1 1/2T and 3ish)

1/2 onion, finely diced

1t fresh thyme, chopped

1 egg

1/4c taleggio (can substitute fontina), chopped

 

Bake sweet potatoes at 400* F until tender (about an hour)

Melt  1 1/2T butter in a pan over medium heat.  Add onion. Saute until soft. Add chopped thyme and cook 1 minute more.  Remove from heat.

 

Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the inside.  Combine the scooped out part with the remaining butter, the onion, egg, and taleggio in a bowl and mash until smooth.  Season with salt.  Pile the mixture back into the shells and bake 20-30 minutes, or until golden.

 

 

 

[Daria]

Mashed sweet potatoes. Make them with a pound of butter and no milk. Ok maybe not a pound, but you get the idea....

 

Or are you up for something totally different? These are so yummy and a great savory dish..

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/stuffed-sweet-potatoes-with-beans-and-guacamole

 

That looks fantastic!  

 

However, this is the first Thanksgiving my mother won't be cooking.  She's a traditionalist about holiday foods, and I think that might be too much for her.

 

I might try that for dinner at home one night.

[Daria]

There's a few more ingredients that I forgot. :)

 

 

This is for our little family:

 

2 sweet potatoes

4-5T butter (split into 1 1/2T and 3ish)

1/2 onion, finely diced

1t fresh thyme, chopped

1 egg

1/4c taleggio (can substitute fontina), chopped

 

Bake sweet potatoes at 400* F until tender (about an hour)

Melt  1 1/2T butter in a pan over medium heat.  Add onion. Saute until soft. Add chopped thyme and cook 1 minute more.  Remove from heat.

 

Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the inside.  Combine the scooped out part with the remaining butter, the onion, egg, and taleggio in a bowl and mash until smooth.  Season with salt.  Pile the mixture back into the shells and bake 20-30 minutes, or until golden.

 

Thank you!  

 

That looks so delicious.  I might try it this year!

[Kassia]

I prefer them baked plain, but my family likes it when I mix them with brown sugar and crushed pineapple.  I heat up the brown sugar and crushed pineapple first then add the cooked sweet potatoes cut up in chunks.  

[mmasc]

Roasted sweet potatoes is the easiest and goes with everything. Simply cut in chunks, drizzle with olive oil, bake (can cohabitate with the turkey in the oven for a while). Nothing else required. We can go through a few pounds of these.

This is exactly how we eat them, at least every week, and is what I was going to suggest too. They’re yummy!

 

ETA: Our favorite is to roast them with Brussels sprouts, cut in halves.

Edited November 12, 2017 by mmasc

[KungFuPanda]

We just peelthe sweet potatoes, cut them into chunks, and roast with meat. They have enough sweetness and the meat drippings add the savory. Season with a little salt and you’re good. Sweet potatoes just don’t need much work.

 

I tend to make the sweet pecan-encrusted kind at Thanksgiving, but the savory version alongside lamb for Easter.

[DawnM]

I make a sinful yams dish.....I will see if I can find the recipe.

 

It has a crumb topping and I double the crumb portion of the recipe since everyone likes it so much.

 

I also make a green bean casserole with sour cream, cheese, ritz cracker and butter topping......YUM

 

DH makes mashed potatoes and gravy

 

Stuffing from a box

[ScoutTN]

We like them best just baked and served with butter.

[Liz CA]

Candied sweet potatoes do add a little sweetness in form of tiny marshmallows and a little brown sugar but is very good.

[KatieJ]

I would love a really good, relatively easy, savory sweet potato recipe. Can be mashed or roasted or whatever, but not something that adds more sweetness to the sweet potatoes.

 

Nothing that uses pork, or alcohol, please.

 

Suggestions?

 

What are you serving?

Mashed sweet potatoes

 

4 tbls butter

2 tbls cream

1/2 tsp salt

1tsp sugar ( I don’t put it in)

2# sweet potatoes ( 2 large or 3 medium)

 

Peeled, quartered and cut into 1/4 inch slices.

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan. Cook covered on low heat.

 

35-45 mins.

 

Sometimes I leave the chunks and sometimes I mash them.

 

Recipe calls for 2 tbls maple syrup and 1/2tsp orange zest added to the mashed potatoes.

It’s on the h back of the card and I forgot to,turn it over the first few times I made them. Now I just wing it with the butter and cream, and forget the maple syrup and orange zest was ever part of the recipe.

Edited November 12, 2017 by KatieinMich

[J-rap]

I never liked sweet potatoes, but our families always made them sweet, with marshmallows, etc.  A few years ago I finally volunteered to make them myself, and in fact asked for recipes on here.  :)  I think I settled on just chopped sweet potatoes with fresh rosemary drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Bake at around 400 until just slightly charred, around 30 minutes or so.

 

Last year I added some chopped onions and carrots, and that was good too.

 

Everyone asks me to make sweet potatoes now for our family gatherings.  :)

 

 

[cjzimmer1]

I never liked sweet potatoes, but our families always made them sweet, with marshmallows, etc.  A few years ago I finally volunteered to make them myself, and in fact asked for recipes on here.   :)  I think I settled on just chopped sweet potatoes with fresh rosemary drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  Bake at around 400 until just slightly charred, around 30 minutes or so.

 

Last year I added some chopped onions and carrots, and that was good too.

 

Everyone asks me to make sweet potatoes now for our family gatherings.   :)

 

I was the same way growing up and thinking sweet potatoes were one of the nastiest part of Thanksgiving (right after the raisin stuffing my mother insisted on making when only 2 of 10 people would eat it).  But she would boil them and then add brown sugar, so not only were they this wet sloppy mess, they were also also disgustingly sweet.  Than I roasted them with garlic and salt and pepper.  I felt like like it was a whole different food.  They were dry and savory and delicious.  But I've discovered that there are a whole lot of foods that I thought I didn't like but it just turns out I don't like her presentation of them.  We're german and so many things have the sweet/sour flavor profile going on and I discovered that I hate anything sweet/sour and if I removed that seasoning that the underlying food was actually good.  

[Daria]

I was the same way growing up and thinking sweet potatoes were one of the nastiest part of Thanksgiving (right after the raisin stuffing my mother insisted on making when only 2 of 10 people would eat it).  But she would boil them and then add brown sugar, so not only were they this wet sloppy mess, they were also also disgustingly sweet.  Than I roasted them with garlic and salt and pepper.  I felt like like it was a whole different food.  They were dry and savory and delicious.  But I've discovered that there are a whole lot of foods that I thought I didn't like but it just turns out I don't like her presentation of them.  We're german and so many things have the sweet/sour flavor profile going on and I discovered that I hate anything sweet/sour and if I removed that seasoning that the underlying food was actually good.  

 

You and J-rap are like me.  I always hated sweet potatoes, because I thought they were way too sweet.  It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I realized that the problem was my mother's recipe (candied from a can, with added orange juice concentrate and marshmallows), and not the actual root vegetable.  

 

Hence my hunt for savory recipes.  I had some mashed sweet potatoes today that were quite good.  Maybe I can recreate that recipe?

[Tanaqui]

Some more approaches to mashed sweet potatoes:

 

Mash them in the usual way, add fresh grated ginger and perhaps a bit of cinnamon. It is not necessary to add sweetener, but you may add a bit of honey or maple syrup to taste.

 

Mash them in the usual way, add a few good squeezes of lime juice and some sour cream (or have the sour cream as an optional addition).

 

Mash them in the usual way, top with chopped bacon and caramelized onions.

 

Mash them in the usual way, add a bit of nutmeg (and optional onion powder and garlic powder).

 

Alternatively, hasselback potatoes always look impressive, and you can do lots with a sweet potato - all these topping suggestions, or maybe something with cheese. Sweet potatoes, bacon, and blue cheese tastes better than you think.

[OneStepAtATime]

No suggestions but I am following this thread with interest.

 

Related story: I grew up eating baked or roasted sweet potatoes with only butter added (although brown sugar or cinnamon was sometimes provided as something people could add on their own).  They were served in the skin.  I was not used to sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and while I can eat it now, I still don't really enjoy it as much as a regular sweet potato.  My college boyfriend, however, had only EVER eaten sweet potato casserole with marshmallows.  He had never actually seen a sweet potato eaten any other way.  I guess he hadn't actually ever seen a sweet potato still in the skin.  One year he came home with me to celebrate Thanksgiving with my extended family.  He was really quiet through the meal, not feeling especially comfortable with so many people he had not met before.  And then dinner was served.  And a sweet potato, still in the skin, was plopped onto his plate.  He stared.  And he stared.  And then blurted out  "It's a ROOT!"  :w00t:   :rofl:

 

My family laughed about that for years.  Poor guy.

[DawnM]

This is the one I make pretty much. But I use condensed milk and double the topping.  And I use brown sugar for all of it and no white.

 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/21261/yummy-sweet-potato-casserole/

[kiana]

I sometimes roast different veggies simultaneously with the potatoes: carrots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower. 

 

We do a vegetable roast Christmas Eve -- it's potato, sweet potato, rutabaga, carrot, parsnip, and brussels sprout. Sounds similar! 

[ktgrok]

I've roasted them mixed with red skinned potatoes (those cook faster so bigger pieces than the sweet potatoes), carrots, and parsnips. SO good. 

 

I also like them cooked alongside the meat, so the drippings coat them...that's like a drug it is so good...sweet from the potato plus the fat and salt from the meat. Yum. 

 

[Sandwalker]

Do you ever mix them up with other vegetables? Roasted sweet potatoes and . . . brussels? Parsnips? Onions?

Yes, with carrots, parsnips, white or other potatoes. I don't usually do them with Brussels sprouts or broccoli, though they are great roasted, because they seem to take over the taste of the sweet potatoes. I like cinnamon as a spice with roasted sweet potatoes.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Nobody here likes them but me, but when I've made them I just bake them with the skin on and eat them like one would eat a regular baked potato.  If you keep them wrapped in foil they stay warm for quite some time too.  Plus you can fit them in the oven wherever there is space.

 

 

[Laurie4b]

Nobody here likes them but me, but when I've made them I just bake them with the skin on and eat them like one would eat a regular baked potato.  If you keep them wrapped in foil they stay warm for quite some time too.  Plus you can fit them in the oven wherever there is space.

 

I do them like that, too--minus the foil. I just coat them with oil and stick them on an oven rack. The skins are still pretty soft that way. I provide butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon as toppings. A guest wanting simply savory can use butter. I use only cinnamon. Others use all 3. 

 

If you use foil while cooking, be sure to remove it as soon as possible and most especially, don't put leftovers in the refrigerator that way. Potatoes and other foods grown in the ground can have botulism spores on them. The foil can seal out the oxygen creating an anaerobic environment which the botulism needs to grow. You can google it for more info. https://www.statefoodsafety.com/Resources/article/category/Resources/article/is-my-baked-potato-safe-to-eat

[Pippen]

I've made this Sweet Potato Au Gratin from The Kitchn. I really liked the added flavors of sage and chipotle, but recommend covering it and watching it because I had the same drying out issues reviewers did.

 

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-sweet-po-1-18999