The Leftover Guru

Today’s delicious dish – Sweet Potato Hash

  

Some people only see sweet potatoes at the holidays – swimming in syrup and topped with toasted marshmallows.  I love sweet potatoes any time of the year, both in savory dishes and in sweet dishes.  There are lots of reasons to include sweet potatoes in your diet – they are a terrific source of Vitamin A and Vitamin B6, and they are lower on the glycemic index than many starchy foods.

This tasty side dish starts with sweet potatoes that have been partially cooked in the microwave, an important step in making sure the sweet potatoes get cooked through.  The recipe calls for shallot, which is like an onion, but has a milder, vaguely garlicky flavor.  I prefer them to onions, but they can be hard to find and are more expensive than onions.  You should feel free to substitute about 1/4 of a medium onion for the shallot – or use more if you really like onions!

Sweet Potato Hash

• 4 medium sweet potatoes (each 10-12 ounces, about 2 3/4 pounds total)
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 shallot (1 1/2 to 2 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Microwave sweet potatoes for 7 minutes and let stand for 5 more minutes.  They should have some give to them, but they should not mush easily.  If sweet potatoes are still very hard, microwave for an additional minute at a time until they are softer, but not smashy.

Set aside one of the cooked sweet potatoes for another recipe (Sweet Potato Spice Muffins).  Peel the remaining sweet potatoes, then cut into chunks.  Peel, trim, and thinly slice shallot (you should have about 1/4 cup of sliced shallot).

In a large skillet, melt butter into olive oil.  Add shallot and sauté for 2 minutes.  Add seasonings and cook for 2 minutes, while stirring.  Add sweet potato chunks and toss to coat.  Spread out sweet potato pieces and allow to cook, without stirring, until browned on the bottom.  Turn chunks and cook the other side until browned.  Remove from heat, toss, and let stand until ready to serve.

Makes about 3 cups of hash, or 6 half cup servings.

Nutritional information (per serving):   176 calories, 6 grams fat, 3 grams saturated fat, 2 grams protein, 29 grams carbohydrate, 9 grams sugars, 4 grams fiber, 11 milligrams cholesterol, 262 milligrams sodium

 Cost per serving:   77 cents

 Preparation time:  30 minutes

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What happens next?

 Sweet Potato Hash makes a wonderful leftover.  I love to have it in a meal the next day at lunchtime.  It will keep for about 5 days, and can be frozen.  If frozen, the sweet potato chunks will lose some of their texture, but will still be yummy.

You should refrigerate the set-aside cooked sweet potato, and be sure to make these muffins within 5 days, or freeze the cooked sweet potato until you are ready to use it.

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Another day’s delicious dish – Sweet Potato Spice Muffins

These muffins are spiced up nicely, moist, and moderately sweet.  They are good just as they are, warmed up or at room temperature, or with butter or honey butter.

This recipe uses wheat germ, but if you don’t have it and don’t want to buy it, you can substitute the same amount of flour.  You could also substitute coconut oil (a mushy solid at room temperature) for the butter.

If you don’t have a precooked sweet potato available, you can start with a raw one.  Microwave it for about 10 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes, then microwave it more if it is not pretty mushy.

It can be challenging to get the batter into the muffin pan wells without dribbling it all over the top of the pan.  I like to use an ice cream scoop with a ratchet release – mine has a 2 ounce (1/4 cup) capacity.  It works perfectly to make 12 muffins out of this amount of batter.  Another trick that works very well is to scoop the batter into a zip top bag, seal it up, snip off a corner of the bag, and pipe the batter into the wells.

Sweet Potato Spice Muffins

• 1 medium leftover cooked sweet potato (10-11 ounces)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 Tablespoons wheat germ
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Microwave cooked sweet potato for 4 minutes and let stand for 5 more minutes.  It should be very smashy.  If not, microwave another minute or two until it is.  Slice in half and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.

Turn on oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour 12 muffin pan wells, or put in liners.

Cream together butter and sugar.  Scoop sweet potato flesh out of skin, discarding any woody or stringy bits.  Beat into the mixture until completely combined.  Beat in eggs, vanilla extract and milk.

Combine remaining ingredients and beat in to batter.    Scoop batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove muffins from pan.

Makes 12 muffins.

Nutritional information (per muffin):   236  calories, 9 grams fat, 5.5 grams saturated fat, 4 grams protein, 34 grams carbohydrate, 18 grams sugars, 1 grams fiber, 68 milligrams cholesterol, 175 milligrams sodium

 Cost per muffin:  45 cents  

 Preparation time:  45 minutes