I have always always always hated sweet potatoes.
No sweet potatoes covered in marshmallows at Thanksgiving.
No sweet potato fries.
No sweet potato pies.
Just no sweet potatoes in general.
Well...times they are a changing...my tastes seem to have matured a bit over the past year or so.
I think it was my discovery of the amazing adobo arequipeño at what was (until it closed- sob!) my favorite restaurant that got me to give sweet potatoes another chance. It was a rich pork stew served on top of a sweet potato mash. AMAZING. I am so so so sad that place closed!
Anyway, my eyes were opened.
I've been trying out different sweet potato dishes (sweet potato and black bean burritos anyone?) a lot lately. I think I've come to the conclusion that I just don't like sweet sweet potatoes.
I'm definitely down with the savory.
Did you know that mashed sweet potatoes are amazing with cheddar in a grilled cheese sandwich?
Dude. Delicious.
My son's finicky eating makes being sneaky whenever possible necessary- I always have cubes of puréed sweet potatoes in the freezer ready to sneak into sandwiches for Little Man.
I just never thought to eat them myself!
Another thing I looooove is beets.
Honestly I have far more experience with pickled beets than fresh, but I've been seeing so many recipes lately using roasted beets and foodie articles talking about how wonderful they are that I knew that I had to give them a try soon.
So I bought one.
One of each, actually. I didn't really have a plan for the sweet potato and the beet, but I knew I'd come up with something. Notice I only bought one of each- because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that no one else in this house was going to eat either one of them!
My family has not jumped on this root vegetable bandwagon along with me.
We went on vacation last week (there is pretty much nothing more magical than the look on your children's faces the first time they do Disney! I wasn't really prepared for that!) and I was looking for a recipe to use up the produce I had in the house before we left town.
I didn't have to look far- I stumbled across this recipe for Roasted Beets 'n' Sweets pretty much immediately.
YOU GUYS.
I hope you're more open minded than my family when it comes to the ingredients in this dish, because it is- and I say this without a trace of hyperbole- one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. I've already run out and bought another beet and sweet potato so I can make it again!
The flavors are so simple but together they work magic. It takes a little over an hour start to finish, but only a few minutes of that is prep work- the rest is hands-off oven time.
I honestly can't think of a better cool weather side dish. Seriously. I write about a lot of food, but I'm so in love with this one!
Remember that Butternut Squash Soup I wrote about the other day?
I even topped a bowl of it with a few spoonfuls of Beets 'n' Sweets and it was just wonderful.
One last note?
Beets are red...very red. Wear an apron and don't cut them on a surface that will stain!
3 medium beets, peeled and diced
1/4 C olive oil, divided
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp sugar
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Spread beets in single layer on foil-lined baking pan. Bake beets 15 minutes in the preheated oven.
3. Mix olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and sugar in a large resealable plastic bag. Place the sweet potato and onion in the bag. Seal bag, and shake to coat with the oil mixture.
4. Mix sweet potato mixture with the beets on the baking sheet. Continue baking 45 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes, until all vegetables are tender.
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