But never fear, it does have sweet potatoes. Which of course are the desserts of vegetables. This recipe comes together in like half an hour and takes very little effort, so even I can manage to motivate myself to make it on weeknights. And yes, I do eat this as an actual dinner. For those of you who need a protein and 2 sides to consider something a “real dinner,” you’re welcome to just use this as one of those sides.
Now, I know bleu cheese is not always a crowd pleaser. But I LOVE bleu cheese. In basically anything. In this recipe though, it actually balances everything out perfectly. You have sweet potatoes, which are, ya know, sweet, and then a rich brown butter and brown sugar sauce, so the funk or tang or whatever you want to call it from the bleu cheese really cuts through that. It also adds some more soft creaminess to the soft potato interiors, which the pecans break up with their crunch. See? Sometimes I have real reasons for doing things. Sometimes.
Now, would you please look at how pretty and colorful this is? That’s the magic of sweet potatoes for you. This is one of those to keep in your back pocket if you need to make something suitable for guests at the last minute. It’s also pretty damn affordable, so that helps too.
Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Brown Butter, Pecans and Bleu
This is perfect for fall and is really simple and cheap too! It only takes about half an hour start to finish and the end result is a balance between sweet and tang, soft and crunchy.
- Prep Time: 15m
- Cook Time: 25m
- Total Time: 30m
- Serves: 2
- Category: Dinner
Ingredients
- 3 small sweet potatoes (about 1 lb)
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 3 tbsp. butter
- 1 tsp. brown sugar
- 1/4 c chopped pecans
- 1 tsp. water
- 1/4 c bleu cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400. Peel and chop your sweet potatoes into evenly-sized chunks. Transfer them to a baking sheet and drizzle the oil over. Toss with your hands to coat all sides.
- Roast for about 25 minutes. 30 for crispier edges.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. After a few minutes you will see the milk solids browning and it will smell nutty.
- Reduce heat to medium low. Stir in the pecans and brown sugar and sauté for 5 minutes or so, then remove the pecans with a spoon.
- Add the water to the butter and sugar mixture to help the brown sugar dissolve to form a rich butter sauce. It will splatter and sizzle a little at first so do this carefully.
- Stir this together and remove from heat. Combine the pecans and sweet potatoes in a bowl, pour over the butter sauce and add the crumbled bleu cheese.
As always, if you make this or anything inspired by it, I wanna see! Tag me on Instagram @nhubble or use the hashtag #followthatfork.
Side note: this recipe lists chopped pecans, which are then sautéed. They’re definitely good that way, don’t get me wrong. But if you happen to have candied pecans on hand, just toss those in at the end instead. I tend to think the shine they have makes this even prettier, and of course it saves you some work too. You can also just candy your own pecans if you don’t want to shell out $473 for 6 ounces of prepackaged ones. I only didn’t truly candy them in the recipe because I wanted to cut down on time and steps.
Wow! That looks delish! Can’t wait to try it out. Thanks for sharing!