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Sweet potatoes are typecast, with many people associating them only with the holiday season and most recipes leaning to, well, the sweet side. As a child, the only time I saw sweet potatoes was on Thanksgiving or Christmas tables, usually topped with marshmallows and some type of added sweetener. These days, I find myself putting them in pancake batter and biscuits, or roasting them as a snack — they are delicious, nutritious, and very easy to cook with.
I am sharing some savory sweet potato recipes that are worth trying (no marshmallows, I promise). And nothing against pies, but there are enough sweet potato pie recipes in the world.
On that note, let’s get peeling.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi With Brown Butter, Sage, and Walnuts
I like to use a quarter of a russet potato and three-fourths of a sweet potato with some “00” flour, eggs, and melted butter to make this dough. These gnocchi are very soft — even more than normal ones — due to the lack of gluten and increased water content of sweet potatoes. For these gnocchi, I like to blanch them and reserve them until they are ready to serve. Brown some butter in a pan, toss the blanched gnocchi, and glaze with a little stock or cooking water. Garnish with grated walnuts, pecorino, and some fried sage leaves.
Ultimate Sweet Potato Puree
This was a recipe I used and perfected at a French restaurant in New York where we did a lot of Thanksgiving catering. We would caramelize apples and bananas, deglaze with rum and orange juice, puree that into cooked sweet potatoes, and finish with browned butter, and salt and pepper. The butter adds a beautiful depth of sweetness, acidity, and nuttiness. This has become a Thanksgiving and Christmas must-have side dish on our table.
Sweet Potato and Beef Short Rib Hash
For this recipe, simply take leftover roasted sweet potatoes and combine them with sauteed onions, some roasted green chiles (canned is fine), and chunks of cooked short rib, pot roast, or pork belly. (Make sure the potatoes are dry, and the meat and potatoes are all cut the same size.) Mix well and season, and then fry in a nonstick pan until crispy on one side, then flip. Serve with a fried egg and salsa verde.
Sweet Potato and Curry Crab Fondue
I’m a huge football fan, so I was excited to present this recipe on a TV segment about tailgating for the Big Game as well as show off a different take on fondue. Start by making a basic sweet potato puree. In a medium saucepan, sauté onions, celery, and ginger until soft and fragrant. Add curry powder and continue to cook to toast the spice, then add a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan. Add stock (shellfish if you have it) and coconut milk. (It should look like soup at this point.) Fold in the sweet potato puree and blend the whole mixture again. (The texture should be between a soup and a puree.) Add to a fondue pot and stir in fresh lump crabmeat. Serve with toasted naan and rice cakes.
Sweet Potato Biscuits With Glazed Ham
Take leftover baked sweet potatoes and add them to a basic biscuit recipe. The potato gives the biscuit a light and fluffy texture, while still being a little more dense than straight buttermilk biscuits. I would create these by hand, as opposed to using a rolling pin, to keep them extra light. They are great split and toasted, and topped with leftover glazed ham from a holiday meal.
AUTHOR
Chef Bradford Thompson's culinary palate was formed by his summers spent lobster trapping and picking fresh blueberries with his grandmother on the coast of Maine. The classically trained chef has worked in the kitchens of such culinary luminaries as Vincent Guerithault, Alessandro Stratta, and Daniel Boulud. After being named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 2004, he won a James Beard Award as the Executive Chef at Mary Elaine's in 2006. Since leaving the back of the house, Thompson, a Level 1 Certified Sommelier, founded Bellyfull Hospitality, a full service culinary/hospitality consulting company. He's also an instructor at the ICC Food Business Program and the ICE Restaurant Management program, where he teaches and inspires the next generation of restaurateurs. A diehard sports fan, Thompson can often be found in the MetLife Stadium parking lot, tailgating and cheering on his beloved New York Giants, whom he has cooked for several times.
