Meatless Friday: Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Editor's note: For Meatless Friday today, we're featuring a recipe from a guest chef with a new cookbook! Coming November 17 from Avery, Simply Scratch is packed with 120 wholesome, homemade recipes that are easy to make.
 I’m ever so diligently trying to convert my family into sweet potato aficionados. It’s a work that’s still in progress, but recipe by recipe, meal by meal, I hope they’re starting to see that sweet potatoes are just as good (if not better) as regular potatoes.

I, on the other hand, am irrevocably in love with them. I love them mashed with jalapenos. I love them simply diced and roasted, or made into breakfast home fries. But twice baked? Those are my jam. This recipe is perfectly spiced with chili powder and cinnamon, sweetened with maple syrup, and, of course, butter is involved. Who even needs a main dish when there are twice baked potatoes? I’m not even kidding.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

SERVES 4 | TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Topping:

2 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 pinch kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400F.  Massage the olive oil onto the skins before placing the sweet potatoes on a small sheet pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a knife glides through effortlessly. Cool until safe to handle.

Cut the sweet potatoes in half horizontally and carefully scoop out the flesh into a medium bowl. Add 4 tablespoons butter, maple syrup, chili powder, cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt to the flesh. Use a potato masher and mash until smooth.

In a small bowl, combine the honey, pecans and a pinch of salt.

Place the skins side-by-side in a small baking dish. Spoon the filling back in before topping with the honeyed pecans and baking for 5 minutes.

Serve warm.

About the author: Laurie McNamara blogs at Simply Scratch and tweets at @simply_scratch. Her recipes focus on homemade foods without relying on boxed ingredients.

Copyright 2015 Laurie McNamara.
Recipe and photo reprinted from Simply Scratch by arrangement with Avery, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. 

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