Wednesday 12 September 2012

Roasted sweet potato and pears


This is a colourful, tasty and healthy side dish that could be served at a BBQ or with a roast chicken on the weekend. I served mine with some sweet chilli pork belly on a Sunday night after we had been swimming all day. So there were some very hungry bodies at our house that needed to be filled up.

Summer is on the way out here and a little chill is starting to creep in on some mornings. So I am starting to cook some more warming meals.

I am happy for the change of season, and I am excited to see the different foods in the shops and clothes in the shop windows. Pumpkins are everywhere, along with fresh Brussel sprouts and lots of apples. I'm looking forward to some warm desserts, casseroles and soups. Yummy!


What you'll need

* Serves four as a side dish.

2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into large cubes.
2 pears, stalk and core removed, chopped into large cubes.
*Use firm pears, as if the pears are too soft, they will turn to mush during the cooking process.
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Handful of fresh basil, roughly torn
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper

What to do

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Place the sweet potato pieces and garlic into a baking tray with the olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper and mix well to coat. Place into the oven and cook for approximately 25 minutes. Then add the pears to the tray, mix carefully together with the sweet potato, then bake for a further 20 minutes until the potato is soft and golden. 

Remove from the oven, place on a serving plate and scatter with the basil. Serve immediately. 

You could drizzle over a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar if you liked to create a dressing for this dish, but there is plenty of flavour without the vinegar.

No comments:

Post a Comment