This dish speaks to the holiday season.
It has all of my favourite flavours – bacon, sage and sweet potatoes. My brother gave me the idea when we were having a chat about foods we could create, specifically this dish and the addition of the crispy potato skins that are added to the topping.
The sweet potatoes are buttery and then you get the saltiness from the bacon and sage, plus the crispy skins take this over the top!
This is the perfect accompaniament to a holiday dinner and a side dish I plan on making year after year.
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Equipment: baking sheet, bowl, frying pan, pie-plate or 9×9 pan
Servings: 6-8
Ingredients:
4 lbs sweet potatoes (about 3 large), washed & peeled (reserve 1 cup of the peel)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 slices of bacon, chopped
1 tbsp butter
20 sage leaves, sliced thin
1 cup of the sweet potato peel, sliced thin
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 375F.
Wash the sweet potatoes and peel them, saving 1 cup of the sweet potato skins. Slice up the reserved potato skins thinly and set aside.
Cut the sweet potato into 1 1/2 inch pieces and lay out on baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and use your hands to ensure the potatoes are all coated.
Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until when pricked with a fork the potatoes are soft.
While the potatoes are baking, chop the bacon and slice the sage. Then, turn a frying pan to medium heat and cook the bacon until crispy. Scoop the bacon out with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel. Next, turn the same pan to medium-low and add 1 tbsp of butter, the sage, potato skins and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes, until the sage starts to crisp. Then, add the bacon back into the pan to mix with the sage and potato skins. Set aside as this will be your topping.
Once the sweet potatoes are cooked, pour them into a bowl, add the butter, salt and pepper and mash. I like to mash and keep a bit more of a chunky consistency to give the dish some texture but you can mash to your liking.
Once mashed, scoop into your serving dish and top with the bacon-sage-potato skins mixture. Pre-heat the oven to 325F and bake for 25 minutes.
Cook’s Note: You can make this dish ahead of time and heat later before serving.
I hope you enjoy this delicious taste of the holiday season!
Until the next cooking adventure,
Jess
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