Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad

I found an interesting looking recipe for Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad in the Sunday newspaper supplement. My recent purchase of a large burlap bag of organic sweet potatoes no doubt piqued my interest…

 Anyway, the recipe calls for four medium sweet potatoes. So how much does a “medium” sweet potato weigh?

I much prefer recipes with exact weights; I don’t care if it’s Imperial or Metric, just something logical to go by so there is sufficient dressing to decide if this is a recipe worth making again. Then I can tweak it, if need be.

Okay, reverse engineering. 1 cup = 1 serving = 200 grams. This recipe says it serves 6; abracadabra: 1200 grams. This is totally untested! Proceed at your own peril! I’m switching between weight systems just because I’m lazy.

Ingredients:

1200 grams sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
227 grams red onion, chopped (1 cup)
4 TBL Olive oil, divided
2 medium jalapenos, ¼ cup, unless you really like spicy. BYW – I used the last from my garden this morning.

1 clove garlic (I don’t need to be specific on one clove)
Juice of 2 medium limes (or 1 lemon, which typically is twice the size of a lime)
  1 – 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained.
1 medium red bell pepper, finely chopped. This was the original amount in the recipe but I didn’t have any red bell pepper this morning when I was making this salad for my lunch (yes, what dedication to a nutritious meal) so I substituted 1 cup pomegranate seeds (then read about their super nutritious properties later in the day. Yay me.)
  1 teaspoon salt. (Yes Terry)
Freshly ground black pepper (whoops, forgot that)
1/3 cup chopped cilantro (remembered that!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Place sweet potatoes, onions and 2 TBL olive oil IN A SINGLE LAYER (so they don’t mush up) on a baking sheet; toss well. Bake, turning occasionally until edges are brown, 30 – 40 minutes.
3. Place jalapeno, garlic, lime juice and 2 TBM olive oil in a blender and process until blended.
4. Place warm sweet potatoes & onion mixture, beans, and bell pepper (or pomegranate seeds) in a large bowl. Add dressing (from blender) salt and pepper. Toss well. Top with cilantro. Serve at room temperature. Serves 6

This was really a nice combination although I used too much sweet potato. So I will make it again. Maybe I’ll take a photo then – because I committed the sin of putting too much on my baking sheet, and dang, the sweet potato was a tad mushy.

Comments

Janice said…
Mmmm...looks like a yum recipe. I like the addition of the pomegranate seeds, always good for us.
Sun Nov 10, 09:48:00 PM
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