Beauty from the Inside Out

Roasted Sweet Potato with Pecan “Candied” Compound Butter

Health and Beauty start from the inside out is what we’re dishing on Bon Appégeechee with The Lajule Chronicles. Welcome to easy additions to your meal plan that don’t sacrifice flavor, won’t stress your budget, and will be having you looking forward to healthy, beautiful, and inspirational recipes!

My passion for cooking started in my Grandmother and Mother’s kitchens and watching Julia Child on PBS.  My love of fashion started with Elsa Klensch on CNN, and my Mother never letting me leave the house without earrings or lip gloss.  My journey and history unite the two on a new website I call Bon Appégeechee. Our world and kitchens are very different places now.  Let’s dish and bring them closer, with each recipe, here on The Lajule Chronicles.  If you have any food related questions or recipes you’d like to see featured on The Lajule Chronicles, feel free to email me here at The Lajule Chronicles.   

This week, we’re talking Beauty from the Inside Out with the gorgeous Sweet Potato.

A piece of Food History and trivia for you, we’re talking Sweet Potatoes, not Yams.  Food Historian and author of the African Culinary Diaspora, Dr. Jessica Harris explains in this article for the New York Times that the mix-up of referring to sweet potatoes as yams began when African slaves in the Caribbean took to calling the local tubers nyami, the Senegalese word for "to eat."  Yams are long hairy tubers, that if you saw them in your local grocery store, you would definitely stop referring to them as the taut sometimes bronze, red, or orange skinned sweet potatoes.

As a healthy addition to your eating habits, sweet potatoes are a “Super Beauty Food”.  They are an excellent source of the following Vitamins:

Beta-carotene or vitamin A as an important antioxidant

The heart healthy Vitamin B6

Vitamin C is not only as an antioxidant, but also shown to support the growth of collagen.  Collagen is a protein known to smooth out wrinkles, giving the glow and appearance of a fuller younger appearance.

Sweet potatoes, in addition to being rich in A and C is also packed with Vitamin E. Vitamins A, C, and E are most often used as supplements in beauty creams and aids.  Each of these vitamins promotes healthy, radiant complexion and vibrant hair.

On review, it’s the Sweet potato that should be the spokesperson for cosmetic and hair care commercials.  I can see it; the glamor glitterati would hail the sweet potato as the new Chiquita Banana!

Growing up, there wasn’t a Sunday meal that didn’t include candied sweet potatoes.  Ok, maybe not when we ate spaghetti with meat sauce, but I’m sure there were always some leftovers in the refrigerator just in case.  I’ve taken candied sweet potatoes; traditionally boiled or roasted in white sugar, cinnamon, a touch of vanilla, and butter and made a dish we can eat any time or day of the week.  This roasted sweet potato is a satisfying lunch with a salad, or it can be a complimenting side to grilled or roasted meats for dinner.  

The treat of this recipe, is that we get all of the “candied” flavor and satisfaction from a dressed up compound butter that tastes just as decadent without indulging in all of the sugars and fats in the traditional version of candied sweet potato. A little goes a long way!  Bonus: You can get double duty out of the compound butter by using it on toasts, bagels, or pancakes.  It keeps well in the refrigerator for weeks.

xo, Bon Appégeechee

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Pecan “Candied” Compound Butter

Yield: 3 servings

The Method: Ingredients for Roasted Sweet Potatoes

3 medium Sweet Potatoes

3 slices of aluminum foil
1 baking sheet
1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

The Method: Ingredients for “Candied” Pecan Compound Butter

8 ounces unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup of chopped pecans, toasted
1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
pinch of paprika
1/2 tablespoon of molasses
1 tablespoon of brown sugar

The Madness: Assembly of Roasted Sweet Potatoes & “Candied” Pecan Compound Butter  

Preheat your oven to 350˚

Under cold water, wash your sweet potatoes.  Dry the potatoes well using a paper or clean kitchen towel. Set them aside. 

To make the compound butter, be sure to use softened butter.  Allow it to sit on a dish off it itself as you go about your day until you’re ready to mix it.

To toast the pecans:  Place your pecans in a small dry pan on the stove under medium high heat. Stir or shake the pan occasionally for 4 minutes. The nuts will become toasted and fragrant.   Set aside to cool.  We don’t want to put warm pecans into the softened butter.  Once the pecans have cooled, we’re ready to make the compound butter.

Unwrap the butter into a medium bowl.  Add cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, molasses, and brown sugar to the butter. Mix until well combined.  Your butter will take on a rich caramel color.  Add your toasted pecans to the butter. Fold in the pecans until they are well incorporated into the butter.  Butter is made!

To complete the sweet potatoes, tear off three sheets of aluminum foil, about 5” each.  You want just enough foil to wrap around the sweet potatoes with a little overhang to make sure that you’re potatoes are securely wrapped.  Place the sheets of foil down the length of a dry baking sheet.  Place one sweet potato in the center of each piece of foil.  Using a fork, carefully poke six or so holes into each sweet potato. This allows the sweet potatoes to steam through as they roast, and the kosher salt to further season the sweet potato.  Now drizzle the tablespoon of extra virgin olive over each potato. Rub or brush the olive oil all over the sweet potatoes.  Season the outsides of each sweet potato with the kosher salt.   

Bringing up the sides of each foil packet, securely wrap each sweet potato into its own foiled package.  Place the entire baking sheet into your preheated oven.  Roast the potatoes 1 hour – 1:15.  The sweet potato is done when you can pierce a fork into the potato without resistance.  Be careful as you remove the baking sheet from the oven, and open each potato, there will be steam.  Slice down the center your potato creating a wedge for your compound butter to melt and flavor the sweet potato from the inside.

xo, Bon Appégeeechee