Black Bean and Sweet Potato Turkey Chili

By Paul Briand

This recipe had us at sweet potato.

My wife Jane and I are big sweet potato fans. And, since you can never have enough chili recipes, we decided to give this recipe, which I found at OurBestBites.com, a whirl.

There’s a lot that goes into it, which makes for a fair amount of prep. But the end result is well worth it, especially at 160 calories per serving for those of you who care about such things.

A couple of observations: You’ll need a very large slow cooker (or pot). If not, halve this. If cooking in a pot on a stove (as I did), you may not need all the beef broth as shown. I ended up using about half.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, diced (any color)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 bell pepper, diced
1-2 jalapenos, minced
20 ounces ground turkey breast
8 ounces mushrooms, minced (about 2 heaping cups)
2 teaspoons cumin
2  teaspoons kosher salt
½  teaspoons pepper
1  teaspoon oregano
1  teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2  teaspoons smoked paprika
1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes*
1 28 ounce can tomatoes (not drained)
2 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
32 ounces beef broth (one box/carton)
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (make sure you’re not using pumpkin pie filling :)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions
1. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil and add onion, garlic, bell pepper, and jalapenos. Saute for about 5 minutes, until veggies are tender and fragrant.  Add to slow cooker or pot;
2. In same skillet, heat remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil. Add turkey and mushrooms and stir to combine;
3. Sprinkle in cumin, salt, pepper, oregano, chili powder and smoked paprika. Add turkey mixture to slow cooker;
4. Add sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, broth, pumpkin, cinnamon, and cocoa powder to slow cooker and stir to combine;
5. Place lid on pot and cook for 4-6 hours on high, or 8-10 on low, let stand with lid off for 10-15 minutes before serving;
6. If using a pot on a stove, cook over medium low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally. It will thicken as liquid steams off;
7. When the sweet potatoes are tender turn off heat and serve with favorite toppings.

Click here for recipe card.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

By Paul Briand

My wife Jane and I love sweet potatoes and all the culinary creations that come from them.

For Thanksgiving dinner, for example, my wife makes a sweet potato puff that is a family favorite. (Note to self: Let’s get this recipe published in time for Thanksgiving 2011.)

We’re also very big fans of sweet potato fries. As we try to eat with our health and weight in mind, they are a favored alternative to regular potato fries when we eat out.

A sweet potato, cooked and baked in its skin with no salt, is low in sodium, and very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. It is also a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin B6 and potassium, and a very good source of vitamin A, vitamin C and manganese. Read more here.

I do a variation of Baked Sweet Potato Fries at home that involves a coating of olive oil, black pepper and Old Bay seasoning. Old Bay, by the way, has a lot more uses than crab cakes.

The hardest part of homemade sweet potato fries is getting them to crisp up. To get there, I often will put them under a low broil in the oven for a couple of minutes after they’ve baked.

Here is another variation of sweet potato fries that I picked up from Food.com.

Given the brown sugar and the salt, these are a little higher in fat, sugar and sodium content.

Note: The amount of olive oil called for in this recipe -- ½ cup -- is way too much in my opinion. You can easily halve the amount and yield the same yummy results.

Ingredients

4 sweet potatoes, unpeeled and cut into wedges

¼ cup sage, fresh chopped (substitute 2 teaspoons if from your spice rack)

½ cup light brown sugar, packed

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees;

2. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, sage, brown sugar, and oil. Season with salt and pepper, and toss;

3. Spread on a baking sheet;

4. Bake for 40 minutes and serve immediately.

Click here for recipe card.

Pork Chops with Sweet Potato

By Paul Briand

Looking for recipes on your smart phone? There’s an app for that.

Lacking inspiration recently, I went searching for a recipe site compatible with web-enabled cell phones.

Allrecipes.com, it turns out, has an app for the iPhone -- called a “Dinner Spinner”. You can use it to search by ingredient or by nutrition information.

Allrecipes also has a mobile site for phones like the BlackBerry that I use. With it too you can search for a recipe by ingredients.

I used it to poke around a big variety of recipe options and settled on this one with pork chops and sweet potatoes.

Ingredients

2 boneless pork loin chops, 3/4-inch thick

1 teaspoon canola oil

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/3 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground mace

Dash pepper

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons cold water

Directions

1. In a small nonstick skillet, brown pork chops in oil. Place in an 8-in. square baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Layer with sweet potato; drizzle with butter;

2. In a small saucepan, combine the orange juice, brown sugar, salt, ginger, mace and pepper; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Pour over sweet potato;

3. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until the pork reaches 160 degrees F and potato is tender;

4. Remove pork and potato. Set aside and keep warm;

5. Pour pan juices into a small saucepan. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1 minute or until thickened. Serve with pork and sweet potato.

A couple of notes from my experience with this recipe: I used four chops, instead of two. Instead of using a saucepan to prepare the orange juice and brown sugar sauce, use the skillet instead.

After the pork chops have been browned and removed from the skillet, tasty bits will remain. Use the orange juice to deglaze the pan for a richer tasting sauce.

Also, I’m suspect of the cook time. It took almost an hour in my oven at 350 degrees for the sweet potato to cook enough to eat.

Click here for recipe card.

Art Smith's Sweet Potato Salad

By Paul Briand

Here's an at home recipe I brought on the road.

The occasion was a family reunion folded around the Air Force at Army football game that occurs at West Point, N.Y., every two years.

This year the event attracted about 50 relatives and included lots of eating -- both at the hotel where we all stayed and at our tailgate party that preceded and followed the football game on Saturday.

My contribution was a sweet potato salad, the recipe for which I found in a recent issue of AARP the Magazine. It comes from Art Smith, who is described in the magazine piece as Oprah Winfrey's former personal chef.

Ingredients

4 orange-fleshed yams (sweet potatoes)

1/4 cup mayonnaise , regular or reduced-fat

4 ribs celery , cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 small red bell pepper , seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1 cup diced (1/2-inch) ripe fresh pineapple

2 scallions, white and green parts, finely chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup (2 ounces) coarsely chopped pecans , toasted

Chopped fresh chives , for garnish

Directions

1. Wrap the individual potatoes in foil. Bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 1 hour, until tender. Cool until easy to handle. Peel, then cut into 3/4-inch chunks;

2. In a large bowl, mix the mayonnaise and mustard. Add the yams, celery, red pepper, pineapple, and scallions and toss gently, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerated until chilled, about 1 hour. (The salad can be made 1 day ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Adjust the seasonings before serving.);

3. Just before serving, fold in the pecans and sprinkle with the chives. Serve chilled.

A couple of notes: The hardest part of this recipe is getting the sweet potatoes cooked so that they're not undercooked but not so overcooked as to make them mushy once the salad is mixed. Mind tended to be a little on the mush side.

I also doubled the amount of pineapple and added a little more mayo. I felt it needed the added sweetness and the smoother consistency that a bit more mayo brought.

And, when I made this recipe for the first time at home, I substituted almost for pecans. When I made the dish for the crowd I didn't use any nuts at all, just to be on the side side against any food allergies.

For recipe card of Art Smith's Sweet Potato Salad, click here.