AP – The classic American-style sweet potato casserole is a welcome dish always. It’s also sweet enough to be dessert.
With added sugar and a finishing layer of broiled marshmallows, it can be a cloying dish that obscures the natural flavour of sweet potatoes.
In this recipe from our cookbook Milk Street 365: The All-Purpose Cookbook for Every Day of the Year, we use two Middle Eastern pantry staples to boost the flavour of sweet potatoes.
First, we coat the potato wedges with nutty tahini, cornstarch and za’atar, a seed and spice blend known for its balance of tangy, savoury, earthy and herbal notes.
The cornstarch helps bind the fatty tahini and gives the sweet potatoes a crisp exterior. We roast the wedges until golden brown and meltingly tender. For the finishing sauce, more tahini and za’atar are stirred into creamy yoghurt, with lime juice for a refreshing tang.
For garnishes, you have many options, including bright ground sumac, spicy-sweet Aleppo pepper, chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or a combination of all three.
TAHINI-ROASTED SWEET POTATOES WITH ZA’ATAR
INGREDIENTS:
– One-third cup plus three tablespoons tahini, divided
– Two tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
– Two tablespoons cornstarch
– One tablespoon plus one teaspoon za’atar, divided
– Kosher salt and ground black pepper
– Two pounds orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into one- to one-and-a-half-inch wedges
– Three-quarter cup plain whole-milk yoghurt
– One teaspoon grated lime zest OR lemon zest, plus two tablespoons lime juice OR lemon juice
DIRECTIONS:
Heat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the lower-middle position. Line a rimmed baking sheet with kitchen parchment. In a small bowl, whisk together the one-third cup tahini and oil; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, one tablespoon za’atar, one teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper.
Add the sweet potatoes and toss to coat. Pour in the tahini mixture and rub the mixture into the potatoes; reserve the small bowl. Distribute in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet.
Roast until the potatoes are lightly browned on the bottom, about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheet about halfway through. Remove from the oven and, using a thin metal spatula, flip each wedge. Roast until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the potatoes meets no resistance, about another 15 minutes, once again flipping the wedges and rotating the sheet halfway through.
Meanwhile, in the reserved bowl, whisk together the yoghurt, lime zest and juice, the remaining three tablespoons tahini, the remaining one teaspoon za’atar and quarter teaspoon each salt and pepper. Transfer the potatoes to a platter. Serve with the yoghurt-lime sauce. – Christopher Kimball
