A few months ago I was at our local, small town grocery store. I was just wandering through the produce aisle when the sweet potatoes caught my eye. At $.25/lb, I knew I wanted to stock up. There was a nice man on the other side of the bin restocking. So I asked if it was possible to buy them by the case. He said yes and asked how many; I asked for four.
And that is how I came home with 160 pounds of sweet potatoes. We are a growing family who loves sweet potatoes and our harvest this year was much more modest than the 75 pounds we harvested the previous year. So while 160 pounds seems like a lot, I’m guessing we’ll finish them up before we even start planting this spring.
Once home, my next job was to figure out how to use all of these sweet potatoes. This list and recipe are just a few of the meals we’ve come up with.
We’ve eaten sweet potatoes for breakfast, roasted and topped like a bowl of oatmeal. We’ve shredded them and fried them like hash browns. We’ve scrambled them into eggs.
We’ve eaten them roasted for lunch and supper, topped with beans or meat or veggies of all kinds. We’ve eaten hash like this fried up with onions and all sorts of different meat, bean, and vegetable variations. I’ve mashed and roasted and sliced and fried and turned it into a side dish every way I know how.
And now, with a little less than half remaining, I’m thinking dessert. Sweet potato pie, of course. Or, maybe this cobbler with the sugar kicked way down. I also think a sweet potato-peanut butter brownie sounds like a good idea which I must explore.
Until then, hash.
Southwestern Sweet Potato Hash
Source: Plan to Eat Blog
Course: Main Course
Main Ingredient: Vegetables
Serves:
Ingredients
- 1⁄3 cup coconut oil or lard
- 2 medium onions
- 4 large sweet potatoes
- 1 1⁄2 cups leftover cooked chicken
- 1 cup prepared salsa
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- pinch cayenne
- 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 can (or 1.5 cups precooked) black beans
- 5 green onions sliced thin
- salt to taste
Directions
- Place a 12″ cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add the coconut oil or lard. Dice onions and sweet potatoes into 1/2″ chunks while the skillet and fat heat up. Add the onions to the hot pan, followed by the sweet potatoes. Season with salt and cook, 10-15 minutes, or until tender. If they begin to brown too much you can place a lid on the pan and turn the heat down to low until the sweet potatoes are tender.
- Stir in chicken, salsa, cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, and beans (if using). Cook, stirring frequently, until all ingredients are heated through. Taste and add salt as necessary. Sprinkle over green onions and serve.