We have never understood why people add so much sugar to sweet potatoes. With the exception of desserts like sweet potato pie, it seems wholly unnecessary.
This sweet dish is not for dieters; it would be a dessert too if not for the sage and chipotle that give it fullness and a kick. Unless you cannot tolerate any heat at all, do use the chipotle; it adds a slow warmth that balances the richness of sweet potatoes, layered with cream and caramelized onions under a crunchy Parmesan crust.
Recipe: Sweet Potato and Sage Gratin
Sweet Potato and Sage Gratin
serves 6
4 large sweet potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, sliced thin
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder (optional)
1 cup cream
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan
Heat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13 casserole or gratin dish. Peel and slice the potatoes. Toss them in a bowl with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.
Heat the butter in a heavy skillet and slowly caramelize the onions. When the onions are dark, add the garlic and cook just until golden. Reserve two tablespoons of the chopped sage and add the rest to the onions, along with the chipotle powder and cream. Cook until the cream is slightly reduced then remove from the heat.
Layer the potatoes in a greased casserole dish with the onions, lifting them out of the cream with a slotted spoon. Pour the cream over the top and bake for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are barely tender.
Heat the remaining tablespoon of butter in the skillet and toast the reserved chopped sage and the breadcrumbs until golden and fragrant. Remove from heat and toss with the Parmesan. Sprinkle over top of the gratin and return to the oven for about 15 minutes or until brown and crispy.
Tags
Side Dish, Vegetarian, Winter, Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Casserole, sage, gratin, sweet potatoShare
Comments (12)
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This sounds delicious - I've done a gratin of sweet potatoes and blue cheese, but I love your addition of sage and chipotle here. Definitely one to try!
oh, that reminds me. i found a can of organic sweet potato puree in my pantry. i have no idea how it got there, or what to do with it!
maybe i can make a soup version of this...
Where in NYC can I find dried chipotle powder? Would it be at a local bodega, or should I check with Sahadi's or Kalustyan's?
any decent-sized grocery store will have it on their spice shelves, with the other chili powders.
Liz--I'm thinking that can of puree has sweet potato pie written all over it.
Oh yum! I love sweet potato, and this sounds like a fantastic dish.
I made this last night, and if I do say so myself it came out pretty tasty. I couldn't find any chipolte powder, so I used have a small can of chipolte peppers, chopped finely and stirred it int0 the cream while it was reducing. excellent alternative to white potatoes! thanks for the recipe
i, too, was without chipotle powder and substituted cayenne instead. everything turned out great. the kick from the pepper really is what puts this recipe ahead of a lot of the other sweet potato recipes out there.
This recipe was the shining star of my dinner party last night. I don't think anything I've ever made has gotten so many complements. Thank you for posting! I didn't have chipotle pepper, but substituted cayenne, which worked fine. I used white sweet potatoes, and (thank goodness) I doubled the recipe. There were 12 people at the table, and almost no leftovers. Delicious!
view AliceNYC's profile
Ok, now this may sound really simple, but when it says slice the potatoes, what size slices are we talking about here?
My first inclination is traditional thin ones like in scalloped potatoes and au gratin potatoes, BUT... both pictures make it seem like they were chunked. So I am left to ask this question.
Thanks.
view ericb's profile
I made this for a potluck this weekend, and everyone raved about it! I added a little more onions (that's a lot of potatoes for one onion), some more cream (because the ratio looked a little off to me) and used panko instead of breadcrumbs. I will definitely make this again!
ericb- try using the food processor...it makes the job go faster and the slices will be fairlyy uniform in size.
view olsensarahm's profile
This was a killer side dish, so savory and wonderful! I used it for a small Thanksgiving dinner and everyone loved it!
view maggiepcs's profile