Mess of Greens

full bellies | warm welcomes

sweet potato

The BEST (for real) Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

by Leave a Comment

 

As a toddler mama, I spend roughly 2/3 of my time in the kitchen trying to figure out how to make something that Dubs will eat that has at least SOME nutritional value. Low-sugar Peanut butter on whole wheat waffles, oatmeal with raisins, avocado toast, and colby-jack cheese cubes are my standby snacks (obviously kale pesto and sweet potato mac ‘n cheese are also on this list.) Thankfully,  ALL of us love tacos, and sweet potatoes, and black beans, so this recipe has risen to the top of our dinner menu pretty quickly.

Also, it’s like the easiest thing ever.

I’ve seen some really gorgeous recipes lately with cubed sweet potatoes. Y’all, that makes for a LOVELY photo and also probably a little less messy eating, but you can’t beat the flavor of roasted sweet potatoes mixed with smoked paprika and cumin. You just can’t. So, that means these photos maybe aren’t as lovely as a few others out there on the interweb,  but the recipe is WORTH IT. Also, you can make this recipe into burritos, tacos, OR quesadillas. It’s so versatile and awesome. Enjoy!

What you Need for the Potatoes:

2 medium sweet potatoes, roasted then peeled

1/2 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (if you like spicy food)

Salt to taste

For the Beans:

1 can of black beans, drained

1/2 Tablespoon chili powder

1/2 onion diced

Cilantro

2 tablespoons of lime juice

To Serve:

Flour tortillas

1 ripe avocado

cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths

sour cream or greek yogurt

shredded cheese

Salsa (if desired)

What to Do:

Prick your sweet potatoes all over with a fork and wash them. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake them for about 30-45 minutes on 400 WITH their skin. You’ll know they’re cooked because their skin will puff out a bit and they will be squishy to the touch. They’re SO much easier to peel once they’ve been baked.

While they are baking, drain your black beans. In a medium saucepan, sautee the onions, and sprinkle the chili powder over the onions. Sauteeing the seasonings brings out a better, richer flavor. Dump your beans in and cook briefly, just enough to warm them. Mix the cilantro and lime juice in. Voila!

Once your potatoes are cooked and have cooled enough so that you don’t burn your fingers off when you touch them, mash the potatoes with the cumin, salt, chili, and paprika. Stir it in very well.

Serve by putting the potatoes, black beans, and toppings in a flour tortilla. Eat until your belly is full and your heart is content. 😉

The BEST (for real) Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 4-6 tacos
What You Need
  • What you Need for the Potatoes:
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes, roasted then peeled
  • ½ tablespoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (if you like spicy food)
  • Salt to taste
  • For the Beans:
  • 1 can of black beans, drained
  • ½ Tablespoon chili powder
  • ½ onion diced
  • Cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons of lime juice
  • To Serve:
  • Flour tortillas
  • 1 ripe avocado
  • cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths
  • sour cream or greek yogurt
  • shredded cheese
  • Salsa (if desired)
What to Do
  1. Prick your sweet potatoes all over with a fork and wash them.
  2. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake them for about 30-45 minutes on 400 WITH their skin.
  3. You'll know they're cooked because their skin will puff out a bit and they will be squishy to the touch.
  4. While they are baking, drain your black beans.
  5. In a medium saucepan, sautee the onions, and sprinkle the chili powder over the onions.
  6. Dump your beans in and cook briefly, just enough to warm them.
  7. Mix the cilantro and lime juice in.
  8. Once your potatoes are cooked and have cooled enough so that you don't burn your fingers off when you touch them, mash the potatoes with the cumin, salt, chili, and paprika. Mix it in very well.
  9. Serve by putting the potatoes, black beans, and toppings in a flour tortilla

Sweet Potato, Kale, and Sausage stew

by

Ok, it’s freezing all over America, right? Like everywhere? Except here. Our former town is probably covered in frost and ice (Can someone in Leland, MS confirm, please?) but here in Laurel, it’s just overcast and muggy. Although there’s SO MUCH to love about the deepest and farthest south, the winter weather isn’t one of them if you happen to like cold. However, I’m not going to let our mosquito-ridden warm front stop me from making the most delicious, easy, healthy soup on the planet, snuggling up with a bowl of it, cup of hot coffee, and pretend it’s a glorious 21 degrees. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you do this, also, even if you aren’t pretending.

…

Read More »

Spicy Sweet Potato and Black Eyed Pea Burgers with Cilantro-Avocado Crema

by Leave a Comment

Can I tell you a secret? I actually don’t like black eyed peas. Whenever New Year’s day comes around  (the one day of the year when I absolutely HAVE to eat some for luck– one part superstition and one part tradition), I try to think of ways to cook black eyed peas that make them NOT taste like damp earthy mush. I’ve had some pretty good luck the past few years (ha! no pun intended) with pickled peas, bep and pecan hummus, lucky soup and mess of greens soup, but this year I wanted to try something new.

I’ve also been looking for new ways to get my little to eat vegetables, because my standard tricks of roasting or giving him a dipping sauce or covering them in cheese weren’t working anymore. I needed to up my game. So, recently I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and make a BEP-based veggie burger that is fit for a toddler (but also delicious for grown-ups). This wasn’t ALL fun and games as I ended up having to do some modifications after the first taste test (have you ever had a mashed potato burger? no? well, I don’t recommend it.) But NOW, I’ve got a recipe where the flavors just knocked my socks off, and my little guy LOVED the burger and nearly ate all of it. My honey (a carnivore all the way) even had thirds.

…

Read More »

My Biscuit Quest Continues: Sweet Potato Biscuits

by Leave a Comment

 
A few weekends ago we were given an incredible gift of 60 degree weather in south Mississippi in early September (WHAT?) and it was heavenly. So heavenly, in fact, that I felt the urge to made pumpkin things… and drink coffee all day and crunch leaves underneath my feet.
I settled, however, for a picnic brunch with my family featuring venison sausage from our crazy generous friend John Mark and sweet potato biscuits (the often-overlooked yet most amazing autumn root vegetable). I’ve FINALLY unlocked the secret to flaky, fluffy biscuits, and the sweet potato just added a really lovely orange color to them, but I wouldn’t say that they had an overwhelming sweet potato taste. Do they finally allow me to leave-off my search for the perfect biscuit? Well, no… but only because I love the quest. If I were less interested in testing out new recipes, then these would definitely be a contender. See what you think!

…

Read More »

G-Nut and Special Sauce… Sweet Potatoes, Peanuts, and Cultural Appropriation

by 1 Comment

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this amazing modified Ugandan recipe over the past nine years. I used to have a roommate whose boyfriend (now husband), Jared, would cook with us three nights a week. We’d trade off and make sure there was a hot, homecooked meal on the table. It was a genius plan, and since the BF was vegetarian and we lived in a village (popluation 500) in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, it was also kind of necesary if he was going to eat anything other than french fries or mushroom quesadillas.
Anyway, this recipe came out of his Best of Vegetarian Times cookbook, and it was AMAZING. Super filling, pretty healthy, and gorgeous. I can’t believe it took me so long to share it with you since the basis of the recipe is sweet potatoes and the magic comes from a special peanut-sauce.
And this brings me to something else…something we haven’t discussed in a little while on the blog (though a lot in real life). Thanks to some articles (#1,#2, #3) floating around FB, I’ve been thinking about cultural appropriation a lot this week. Food Historian Michael Twitty has some pretty important things to say about it, and if you haven’t read or heard his thoughts on the importance of giving respect and credit (and more importantly, actual compensation) to those women (and men) who played HUGE ENORMOUS roles in the creation of the rich, diverse, amalgam that is southern food today, then  you should.

…

Read More »

Genius plan: Sweet potato & Spinach mac & cheese

by Leave a Comment

As the mom of a toddler who hates (HATES! DESPISES! DETESTS!) all green vegetables that aren’t either roasted, pureed, or fried, I’ve had to get creative about how to serve them to my little guy. What he doesn’t hate, though, is cheese. and what does he LOVE? well, mac ‘n cheese, of course. like everyone in all the land. My plan? combine what he hates with what he loves…. *diabolical laugh*

I’ve had some die-hard mac-n-cheese fans turn up their noses when I’ve mentioned adding vegetables to their most favorite food, but (and I can say this from actual experience and from the perspective of someone who REALLY loves Mac’n cheese,) it’s deeeeee-licious. Want to test it out on your own picky eater? (…or yourself. No judgement. I eat this off my little guy’s high chair tray BEFORE he can. it’s that good. I’m not ashamed about it. 😉 Here’s the recipe!

…

Read More »

(baked!) sweet potato fries

by 2 Comments

boone and i have a sweet friend, craig, who was the main staple of our friend group in grad school (and boone’s one-time roomie) he moved to ATL from Missouri, and had never, ever, ever in his life tried a sweet potato before moving to the south.
can you imagine?
well, once he tasted this fruit of the earth he fell totally in love, so in love, in fact, that I planned a sweet potato feast for his birthday party our first year that included
sweet potato brazilian stew, casserole with marshmallows, and a sweet potato, spinach and g nut and special sauce dish and, of course, sweet potato fries. it was a hit, although we were all SUPER full by the end.
boone and I’ve had a couple of sweet potatoes in the kitchen for a few weeks now and wanted to eat them before they went totally bad, so for lunch we made those same fries again (although we’ve gotten A LOT better at making them since those early days.) they’re SO easy and since SP are the super food and these are baked, they’re also pretty good for you.
FYI: we heard from our farmer/mayor/gentleman friend ruffin that sweet potato fries have been SO in demand at restaurants and grocery stores these past few years that south delta farmers had orders they couldn’t fill. but you don’t have to buy yours in the frozen section now. 🙂 read on for the recipe.
easy peasy (baked!) sweet potato fries
What you need:
2 sweet potatoes, peeled (or very heavily washed if you like the skin)
olive oil
sea salt
pepper
tony chachere’s creole seasoning
cookie sheet + parchman paper
What you’ll do:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. While the oven is preheating, peel and cut your potatoes in half across the horizontal center, then into 1/2″ wide sticks. (see below for image)
 

put the potatoes on the cooke sheet that’s been covered with parchman paper or aluminum foil and cover with olive oil and seasonings to taste. (you can also coat them with seasoning and oil in a bowl, which really and truly helps cover them with seasoning more evenly…but i don’t like to wash extra dishes.) place them in the oven for about 20-35 minutes (depending on how crunchy you like them to be) and bake.

serve with ketchup, ranch dressing, or just by themselves. The fries below cooked for about 25 minutes and were firm but not crisp, which is how I like them… feel free to experiment with the crunch you crave. 😉

what’s YOUR favorite thing to do with the southern super food?

sweet potato spoonbread

by 2 Comments

if it sounds like heaven, well, that’s because it is. what is more southern than sweet potatoes AND cornmeal? nothing. and when eaten together in one dish, well, you might as well start punctuating every sentence with “bless your heart” and “y’all.” 😉

we just had spoonbread a few nights ago when my family was here, but i’d been eyeing this sweet potato version since thanksgiving when i saw it in my mother-in-law’s house beautiful. see…wouldn’t this photo pull at your heartstrings, too? (this photo came straight from hb and the cookbook itself)

since my mom swears by our family’s spoonbread recipe, i decided to combine it with the one in the magazine that was taken from the new southern cookbook Basic to Brilliant. i think it’s the PERFECT side for spicy pork, glazed chicken, or even my own whiskey and wine venison. here goes nothin’…

Sweet Potato Spoonbread
(adapated from my grandmother’s friend Velma’s classic spoonbread recipe AND Basic To Brilliant, Y’All:  150  Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company, by Virginia Willis)
Makes 4 to 6 servings
  – 2 cups low-fat or whole milk
  – 1 cup fine ground cornmeal since my mom said this is the secret to perfect spoonbread (note: Willis’ calls for stone ground grits + 2 more cups of water)
– 1/2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and grated (grating takes FOREVER. i went with the smallest size my microplaner would grate)
– Coarse salt and freshly ground white pepper
– Pinch of ground cinnamon (willis’ also calls for 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger. ick. i left this out)
– 1 stick unsalted butter
  – 2 large eggs, separated
  – Butter for a 2-quart casserole or soufflé dish
what do do:
grate the sweet potato (this will take awhile. and your hand may cramp. but it’s worth it.)

in a large, heavy saucepan, combine the milk and  butter (make sure it’s still cold) and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. slowly add the cornmeal, whisking constantly. add the sweet potato. season with salt and white pepper. decrease the heat to low and simmer, stirring often, until the cornmeal is creamy and thick. add the ground cinnamon (and the ginger, if you must. ick). taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and white pepper.

preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. butter an ovenproof casserole or round 2-quart soufflé mold. to the sweet potato-grits mixture, add the egg yolks, one at a time, stirring after each addition. In a separate bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the egg whites with some serious elbow grease OR as ms. willis suggests…on high speed until stiff peaks form. gently add the egg whites into the warm sweet potato mixture. transfer the lightened mixture to the prepared pan; smooth the surface with a spatula. bake until the outside is puffed and risen, the inside is firm but moist, and the top is golden brown, 45 minutes. serve immediately while still puffed.

yes, it’s orange. and yes, it’s good.