I’ve always preferred baking sweet potatoes over boiling and mashing sweet potatoes because my boiled version always turned out watery.
I just learned you have to boil the peeled sweet potatoes whole. After about 45-50 minutes check to see if the potatoes are cooked through. Then drain and return to the cooking pot. Turn the heat on to low and start smashing, and mashing while constantly stirring to avoid burning (I use a wooden spoon). After about five minutes a good amount of moisture will have evaporated from the potatoes. This is why sweet potatoes made this way aren’t too loose and watery. Add a splash of milk or half and half, a bunch of butter, salt and pepper to taste.
Memo to Self – buy more sweet potatoes, eat more sweet potatoes.
Cooking For One is Not Fun is still not fun even after yesterday’s mini-rant. The plan was simple: go to the store, buy two rotisserie chickens, rip the meat off the bones and make a quick simple dinner. Well I didn’t fix any dinner and now I have a tub full of cooked chicken. After a hearty breakfast of pancakes, peanut butter and banana I started thinking about lunch.
I found two small sweet potatoes, tortillas and Monterrey Jack cheese.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lightly grease with some olive oil.
Scrub the dirt off the sweet potatoes and split them lengthwise. Place cut side down on the greased aluminum foil covered baking sheet and bake. (small to medium 30-45 minutes, large will take an hour or so). When done, remove from oven and allow to cool.
Scoop potatoes into a mixing bowl. See the list of spices? Add a pinch of each. The actual amount depends upon how much potato you’re working with. Mix well and set aside.
Heat a griddle or large pan on the stove, medium flame.
Butter or margarine one side of a tortilla. If using butter, add some olive oil to the griddle because butter burns. Tortilla buttered side down on the griddle. Fill one half side with potato and dot with chicken and cheese. Flip the other half over so it looks like a quesadilla. Brown on both sides. It’s done when the cheese is melted and the filling is warm.
Repeat. Eat.
Bet you thought I forgot the Sriracha. If you like spicy go ahead and add to your potato mixture along with the rest of the spices. Or use Sriracha as a drizzle or dipping sauce. Just remember if you add this to the potatoes before grilling I assume zero responsibility for the searing burn in your throat.
Actually, go ahead and use your favorite hot sauce.
Yeah, the picture above is cheating. Here’s the real shot.
The Bottom Line
Tasty. But I said it before and I’ll say it again. Cooking For One is Not Fun and this was a lot of work to make one quesadilla. At least I’ve worked out the spice combo and the flavors are fine. I did end up mixing a few dashes of Sriracha into the potato. Cooking for one needs to be quick, simple, filling, and nutritious. This quesadilla did not meet the “quick” criteria.
In the future consider the following:
Bake and season the potatoes the night before to allow the flavors to marry and to save time when actually making this quesadilla.
Make more than one quesadilla. Trust me on this.
Tabasco brand Sriracha (an unpaid endorsement).
Buy and debone your chicken ahead of time.
This post is #9 in my One Rotisserie Chicken, 50 Meals – The Concept series that I started 12 years ago. At this pace I won’t live long enough to finish the series. At least no one pays me for my content. Maybe I’ll change the title to One Rotisserie Chicken, 10 Meals and declare this series done.
Yes, I’m messing with the spice mix. So far I like the changes. Changes from the first version Chickpea and Sweet Potato Steware in bold. In this revision I used dried chickpeas instead of canned. The night before rinse one cup of dried chickpeas with 2-3 changes of water. Then add enough fresh water to cover the beans and soak overnight. (These little guys will approximately double in size so make sure you add enough soaking water). Before cooking, drain well, rinse and toss into a pot. Add enough water to cover, bring to a boil then reduce the heat to simmer. Add some garlic and onion powders and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Add the potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and chickpeas to the pot. Pour enough vegetable broth into the pot to cover the ingredients by an inch.
Turn the heat up and bring to a boil. After boiling, turn the heat down to low and simmer for about an hour, lid on partially covered. Stir occasionally. Add more broth/cooking liquid as the stew thickens.
After an hour taste and adjust your seasonings. The amounts of seasonings I used results in a very mild stew.
Serve over rice (or not).
Confessions
This revision has been sitting in my unpublished drafts for a long time. It was time to revisit, cook and taste again to see if it was worth keeping around. I had a half bag of frozen carrots and a third bag of frozen corn. They got tossed into the pool. The corn is a nice addition, bringing in a little sweetness.
The dried cup of chickpeas makes approximately 3 cups cooked. I used the cooking liquid and less vegetable broth.
I’m flying solo this week. At least I have breakfasts and lunches ready to go.
Sunday is a good Beanday. A day of rest. Maybe a few, but not too many errands. Hang out the rest of the day at home and make a pot of beans for the week.
This morning I was compiling a dried bean inventory so that I wouldn’t buy more of what I already have on hand. My beans are in various containers in the pantry and on the kitchen counter. Some packages of dried beans are unopened. My quick inventory told me I had green split peas, adzuki, black beans, black eyed peas, red and brown lentils, chickpeas, pinto, mayacabo, white beans, and an unidentified variety which I had to research to figure out I had Cranberry beans!
The white beans were stored in a plastic baggie and fearing they may have been in the pantry since the last time I made Wing and Leg Navy Bean Soup I thought I would cook them. After a triple rinse I quick soaked them (rinse, drain, pour boiling water over all and cover for one hour). Drain again, cover with fresh filtered water, a little onion powder, garlic powder, one bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to super low, and simmer for several hours.
Now I had a pot of beans before deciding what dish to make. After exhausting the possibilities I decided upon a White Bean and Sweet Potato Stew. My inspiration came from the same source as Spanish Style Lentils. So if you’re a visual learner, here you go:
1/2 tsp smoked paprika and 1/2 tsp regular sweet paprika
freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
Heat the olive oil in a medium sized stock pot
Add the onion, bell pepper and carrot. Saute until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and both paprika powders. Saute briefly for about a minute.
Add the tomatoes, vinegar and simmer for five minutes. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Continue to simmer until the mixture thickens.
Add the beans, sweet potato, and two cups of broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer covered for around 30 minutes. Check and stir throughout this process and add more broth to desired thickness and to prevent sticking/burning of the stew.
When the potatoes are tender the stew is done. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper and salt.
Makes approximately six large servings.
Now I need to figure out what to make with the butternut squash I baked in the oven.
A gentle reminder to my readers. I take no credit for these recipes and Laura isn’t compensating me for this post. This is another Giant Sticky Note that serves as a reminder to try these recipes because I love sweet potatoes too.
Have fun! I constantly remind myself I own Laura’s cookbook and need to fix some of her recipes. This post makes three Giant Sticky Note reminders to myself to expand my vegan and vegetarian meals beyond my world famous Wheat Germ Veggie Burgers.
A few weeks ago I cooked too many chickpeas. Some got roasted with this Veggie Burrito Spice Blend. The rest got tossed into this concoction. The problem I have saving a recipe to revise at a later time is I tend to forget to revise and post. Then I can’t remember what stopped me from posting earlier. Like this recipe which I thought needed revisions but actually didn’t. I think.
Add the potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and chickpeas to the pot. Pour enough vegetable broth and/or bean cooking liquid to cover the ingredients by an inch.
Turn the heat up and bring to a boil. When boiling, turn the heat down to low and simmer for about an hour, lid on partially covered. Stir occasionally. Add more broth/cooking liquid as the stew thickens.
After an hour taste and adjust your seasonings. The amounts of seasonings I used results in a very mild stew that allows all of the flavors to shine.
Well I pulled one off the griddle and tried it. I froze the rest and heated one up for lunch today. It was good…but not great hence the RIP (recipe in progress) tag. I made a sandwich on whole wheat and swirled some Sriracha mayo on it and the burger tasted better than last night. The burger is missing something and we’ll just leave this as a RIP and keep experimenting. Definitely needs more heat. Maybe some corn kernels to balance the heat. I’m also thinking of fresh onion and garlic, not the powders which would make this burger less of a pantry mash up but oh well. Here’s where we stand today.
Update 10.08.20
I ate the last of probably five or six of these “burgers” which were in the freezer. The good news is they freeze well and taste OK. The bad news is they taste just OK so now this recipe is being retired. RIP now stands for Rest in Peace. I’ve decided they are not very “burger-like” and more like sweet potato and black bean cakes with herbs and spices. This is the final update as this recipe goes up on the shelf along with any recipes from The Stack Project – Lasagne Stack Update 04.15.15. The Stack Project contained just one experiment Lasagne Stacks which also were just OK.
garyskitchen.net 