Sweet Potatoes 3 Ways

I absolutely love sweet potatoes... I could eat them forever.  I love their sweetness, their fluffy texture, and how nutritious they are for you.  Here are 3 recipes for sweet potatoes that I love.  The first is recipe for simple roasted sweet potato wedges.  The second is my famous Thanksgiving mashed sweet potatoes.  And the third is a delicious sweet potato pie recipe!  Enjoy!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes Wedges

Ingredients:

• 2-3 large sweet potatoes 
• Olive oil, salt, pepper/cayenne

Directions:

1. Wash your sweet potatoes and peel if you like, but I like to keep the skins on (more hearty and more healthy!)
2. Cut them into 1 inch wedges (I do this by cutting the potato into disks, then cutting each disk like a pie into 4 pieces.)
3. Place sweet potato wedges onto a baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil all over, sprinkle salt and pepper and cayenne on top.  With your hands mix together so the sweet potatoes are coated well.
4. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F for about 25-30 minutes.

Thanksgiving Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients: 

• 5 large sweet potatoes
• About 1/4 cup of Earth Balance
• About a 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• About 2 tablespoons cinnamon 
• About 2 tsp of nutmeg
• About a 1/4 cup of orange juice
• Salt and cayene pepper
• 1/3 cup of pecans or walnuts

Directions:

You can choose between boiling or roasting the sweet potatoes.  Boiling is faster, but kills some of the flavor.  Roasting takes longer, but retains much more flavor.

1. To boil:  Chop each potato into 4 big pieces.  Keep the skins on.  Boil chunks in a large pot of water for about 25 minutes, until soft.  Place in a strainer and rinse with cold water to remove the skins easily.
2. To roast:  Prick each potato with a fork, cut in half, and wrap each half in tin foil.  Bake all halves  in the oven at 450 degrees F for about an hour, until they are soft in the middle.  Scoop out the insides into a bowl (and nibble on the skins while you cook.)
3. Take the boiled/roasted sweet potato meat and mash in a large bowl.  
4. Add the Earth Balance, maple syrup and orange juice in slowly, testing the flavor to your liking.
5. Add all the spices in and adjust to your liking and mix together until you have a heavenly bowl of mashed sweet potatoes.
6. In a pan, roast the pecans/walnuts on medium heat. Coat with any extra maple syrup and spices and heat 'till toasted and aromatic. Sprinkle nuts on top of mashed sweet potatoes and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 cup of gluten free oats
• 1 1/2 cups of nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts are good!)
• 2 tablespoons of Earth Balance or coconut oil
• 1-2 tablespoons of honey

Filling

• 3-4 mashed sweet potatoes (or 1 can of pureed sweet potatoes)
• 1/3 cup of coconut milk (or soy, or rice milk)
• 4 tablespoons of maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon of orange juice
• 2 eggs beaten (or substitute with 1/4 cup of cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup of water)
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a food processor, grind up the nuts and oats.  Add the Earth Balance and honey and pulse until mixed.
3. Press the crust mixture into a 8/9 inch pie pan and pre-bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
4. In a large bowl mix together the sweet potatoes, coconut milk, maple syrup, orange juice, spices and eggs until smoothly mixed.  (You can also process in a food processor if you want it to be completely smooth, but I like it more thick.)
5. Pour sweet potato filling into the pie crust.
6. Bake pie in oven for about 45 minutes or so, until the crust is golden and you can stick a knife into the middle and have it come out mostly dry.  Let cool before serving.
7. Serve with Coconut Bliss vanilla ice cream!