‘Tis the season for all things starchy, sweet and dripping in butter, but I wanted to at least keep my Christmas-y cooking and baking binge in line with clean eating. Thankfully, that’s not too difficult with a little bit of creativity with winter tubers, natural sweeteners like coconut sugar and maple syrup, and a healthy belief that butter is in fact, good for you (I trust all things Dr. Josh Axe).
Last week, I picked a bag of murakami sweet potatoes at Trader Joe’s, purple-skinned, white-fleshed and oh-so intriguing. I baked a couple as a test run and found they were a bit starchier than regular old orange sweet potatoes, but sweeter in a nuttier sort of way. I decided to go simple and decadent in my prep, and caramelized + whipped sweet potatoes were born: silky, mapley and perfect as a sweet side, rich breakfast, or yes, you guessed it, dessert.
PS: These are paleo-friendly, if you happen to believe cavemen ate sweet potatoes.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs murakami sweet potatoes (regular sweet potatoes are fine too)
- 1 cup coconut milk or almond milk
- 1 stick butter, melted
- pinch of salt
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup, plus additional for drizzling
- chopped toasted pecans, optional
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and scrub the potatoes, dry, prick with a fork, and lay on a foil-lined baking pan. When oven is ready, bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or a bit longer. Potatoes should start to brown on the bottom (that’s the caramelization: the sweet spot).
- Peel potatoes and put into the large bowl of an electric mixer (I use handheld) along with the melted butter and maple syrup. Beat the potatoes with the butter and syrup on high for several minutes, pouring in coconut milk or almond milk. Continue whipping until silky smooth.
- Remove and dollop into bowls, drizzling with additional maple syrup and sprinkling with pecans, if you’re into garnishing your food with nuts as much as I am.
Serves 6-8.
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