Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes

Long overdue, I am sorry!  You know how Amherst finals are.  Here is the delicious sweet potato recipe Zach and I prepared for our Thanksgiving this year.  We modified a recipe from smittenkitchen.com pretty significantly and ... well, I'm biased, but I'm thinking ours was better.  The recipe after the jump serves about three; we tripled the recipe for a Thanksgiving of seven and there were leftovers (tasty, tasty leftovers!)  
Happy Holidays to all!  Looking forward to seeing some more holiday recipes.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Goat Cheese, Cranberry, Pecan Salsa

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds medium to large sweet potatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup pecans
2 tiny or 1 small shallot
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon dried cranberries
2 ounces firmish goat cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Before preparing your sweet potatoes, get your pecans roasting.  Melt a thick pat of butter in the microwave and toss your whole pecans in the butter, making sure they are fully covered.  Lay out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, tossing occasionally.

3.  When pecans are done roasting, remove and let cool, then increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

The sweet potatoes getting layered

4. Meanwhile, peel the sweet potatoes then cut them into large discs approximately 1/2 inch thick.

5. Cover a foiled cookie sheet with a layer of olive oil.  Place the sweet potato discs in a single layer on foil, flipping once or twice to sweet potato is lightly oiled.  Season with salt and pepper and roast for 20 minutes.  Flip, salt and pepper the newly exposed side, and roast for about another 15 minutes.  This could take more or less time depending on your oven; you should be able to press a fork onto the top of the sweet potato and have it yield to you.  The insides should be all yummy and creamy.  When potatoes are done, drop oven back down to 350 degrees F.

6. While sweet potatoes are roasting, prepare your "salsa."  Chop roasted pecans.  Mince shallot.  Chop parsley.  Chop dried cranberries.  Combine prepared pecans, shallot, parsley, and cranberries with crumbled goat cheese and set aside.

7. In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard.  Mix 1/2 of dressing into salsa.

8. Once sweet potatoes are done roasting, layer them into a casserole dish (or my favorite, the trusty Pyrex!).  If you are preparing a larger batch (like ours), lay down a single layer of sweet potatoes, cover with about 1/3 of the salsa, lay out the rest of the sweet potatoes, then top with the rest of the salsa.  For a smaller serving, create a single layer of sweet potatoes and evenly spread salsa across tops.  Drizzle the second half of the dressing over the whole shebang.  

9.  Place back in the over at 350 degrees F for about 10 min to heat up salsa.  Serve and soak up the compliments!

Yum yum, all done!