Savory Sweet Potatoes

Our friend Chuck is coming home from the hospital today after surgery on his bum knee.  We are taking dinner over and when asked for his favorite, he said, “Sweet Potatoes.”   I did a quick search on Pinterest and found Kalyn’s Kitchen‘s recipe for Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Red Onions with Feta Cheese and decided to modify it a little and give it a try in our 16″ camp Dutch oven.

Ingredients:

• Three sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1-inch pieces
• Three red onions, peeled and cut into large pieces
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – about 1/4 cup
• 1/4 cup blue agave
• 6 ounces of Feta cheese
• 3 tablespoons dried, chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon coriander
• 1 tablespoon fennel
• t tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground dried Chipotle
• 1 tablespoon Kosher salt

In a large bowl, toss sweet potatoes, onions, and chives together, then add olive oil and agave.  Add more olive oil if needed to completely coat all of the vegetables.  Mix until well incorporated.

In a spice grinder, blend together oregano, chipotle, fennel, and salt.  This will make more than you will need, so keep the remaining spice in a glass jar.  Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the spice mixture into the sweet potatoes and onions.

Prepare a 16″ camp Dutch oven by lining the bottom with parchment paper or spray liberally with olive oil.  Pour in sweet potato mixture and distribute evenly around the bottom of the oven.  Sprinkle more Kosher salt on top.

Fire up a chimney of charcoal.  Bake at 450 degrees Farenheit by placing a circle of 16 charcoals underneath the oven and 30 charcoals around the lid.  After 15 minutes, stir sweet potatoes and onions so they are roasting evenly, and rotate the bottom and lid in opposite directions to avoid hot spots.

Remove from heat when the sweet potatoes are fork tender, about 15 to 20 more minutes.  Add feta cheese.  (Note my blog-fail.  I got excited and added the cheese before baking.)  Fortunately, adding the feta while the sweet potatoes were baking did not matter.

Oh, this is such a light, savory dish.  The hint of sweet from the agave fit perfectly with the sweet potato and the red onions and the spices were a lovely subtle, savory complement to the feta cheese.   And the colors!  Beautiful!  I can’t wait to for Chuck and Terry to try this!

Servings: 4-6 generous portions

Prep Time:  20 minutes

Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes