Baked Sweet Potato Salad

Perhaps it is the lack of sun, but I've been craving a lot of bright orange produce lately. And this recipe seemed a nice change of pace from tradition potato salads. And it gave me an excuse to try out sweet potatoes in a new way.


Adapted from Main Courses 365 edited by Jenni Fleetwood. (I do have slight obsession with this cookbook recently...)

serves 4 to 6

The Ingredients:
2 1/4 lbs sweet potatoes
3 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1/4 of a red onion, diced
1 red chili, diced (I used the fresno)
salt and pepper to taste

My Modification:
None. This time I actually used a recipe unaltered

The Process:
Preheat the the oven to 400 F. Wash and pierce the sweet potatoes. Bake for 40 minutes or until tender. Remove and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, mix the yogurt, cilantro, and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill until ready to assemble the salad.

In a large bowl combine the red pepper, celery, onion and chili.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them. Cut the potatoes into cubes and add them to the bowl. Drizzle the dressing over and toss carefully to combine.

The Review:
Not bad, but this salad screams to be served alongside other picnic classics in the height of summer instead of in the dead of winter. The flavors were bright and surprisingly reminiscent of tzatziki. I was expecting more of a Caribbean vibe than Greek...

The only thing I know I'd try differently would be to bake the sweet potatoes longer. Ours still had an bit of crunch to them. The smoother texture and sweeter taste from a longer bake time may give this salad the extra oomph it needed...