This unusual twist to scalloped potatoes is easy to make for a crowd. Slicing the raw potato is made easy with a mandoline. The flavorful creamy result was a favorite with our Christmas company this year. You won’t regret giving this a try.
Sweet potato gratin Serves 10-12 as a side in a buffet
2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (3 or 4 large orange ones), peeled and thinly sliced on a mandoline if you have one
1 3/4 cups whipping cream
6 ounces smoky blue cheese, or 4 ounces blue cheese of any type with 2 ounce smoked gouda
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup candied walnuts, chopped into small pieces
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Peel and thinly slice sweet potatoes on a mandoline; use the guard. Set aside.
Heat heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat, and add the cheese slowly, so it melts into the cream. Mix in brown sugar, salt, and red pepper flakes. Ideally, bring to a low simmer to incorporate all of the ingredients, over 5 to 10 minutes.
Butter a large 12″ diameter baking dish and evenly layer a quarter of the sweet potatoes along the bottom, then lightly sprinkle with salt.
When the sauce is ready, pour a quarter of it over the sweet potatoes. Repeat the layering of the potatoes and the sauce three more times until all of the ingredients are in the baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. They should be fork tender but not mushy. if they are ready ahead, remove them from the oven and reheat at serving time.
Remove foil, sprinkle with the chopped nuts, and broil to brown the top, 5 minutes.
Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Although there is a fair bit of saturated fat in this dish, for a special treat once in a while it delivers a lot of powerful nutrients besides.
Sweet potatoes pack a good amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, and manganese in each serving. Orange and purple ones contain a lot of antioxidants that protect against chronic disease, possibly even against certain cancers. Anthocyanins in the purple variety may also boost brain health. Fiber in these root veggies promotes healthy bacterial growth in the intestine for a happy gut. Beta-carotene protects vision and supports your immune system.
Blue cheese is a great source of protein. Researchers also believe that the fat in dairy products such as blue cheese may have a neutral or even positive effect on cardiovascular health. Blue cheese is also an excellent source of calcium.
Whipping cream contains choline and vitamins A, D, E, and K, all of which play vital roles in your health. For example, vitamin A is essential for eye health and immune function, while choline is critical to brain development and metabolism. Furthermore, whipping cream contains calcium and phosphorus, two minerals that are necessary for healthy bones.
Profile A single serving (one-tenth) of this dish has 280 calories, providing you with 23% of your daily value for vitamin C, 19% vitamin A, 11% fiber, 8% calcium, 8% protein, and 7% potassium. Total fat amounts to 32%, which although high, contributes to the excellent flavor profile and nutrition of this dish.
Even if you find blue cheese on its own too strong a flavor, baked in a dish this way it is magical. You won’t be sorry if you decide to give this recipe a try. Happy new year!
This salad is tastiest if you have pickled beets on hand. You can also use canned beets, though. And if you want to boil some beets to use, that’s also a possibility. But I like to use the juice from pickled or canned beets to make a beet-juice reduction for the salad dressing – so good!
I made this salad recently for Valentines Day and served it with preboiled lobster for a red-themed dinner – delicious! My salad recipe serves two, but you can easily double it.
As my previous post has pointed out, we can never have too many beets for good health. And the leaves of beets are just as magical as the rosy roots. Because beets contain a compound that oxygenates the blood, they can improve athletic performance and keep our little gray cells working in top order. These properties become even more important as we age. In fact, beets are probably the best food we can eat to help ward off the onset of Alzheimer’s and other age-related brain disorders. It’s never too early to incorporate new and healthy foods to our diets. I hope you and your family will try these easy recipes.
Berries, walnuts, garlic, tomatoes and tea. What do they have in common? They are all proven cancer fighters!
They work best as members of a team. For best health, join them up on your plate with other battle-scarred food heroes of the likes that are cited in this valuable article from the American Institute for Cancer Research.
No added salt – just wild Canadian sardines and water.
More on the omega-3s…
Omega-3 fats are vital to the workings of our brain, the most important organ of our body. They keep our memories sharp and our minds on target. Sadly, the average North American diet is not a welcoming place for these guys. More
This walnut soup idea grew from a recipe I had saved from a teenage chef in Texas, who says his friends loved it. He’s probably grown up by now and very smart indeed if he’s continued down the walnut-tree-lined road of healthy eating.
I found the earthiness of the walnuts in my Texan’s dish very nice. His recipe might be something the kids in the family would take to. But for me, I needed a little more oomph on my spoon. More
Walnuts slash diabetic risk by a quarter. Click pic for more.
Continuing with walnuts…
Walnuts raw (see Verse 4 in my previous post) not only develop the jaw, they also strengthen teeth as well as bones in your whole body.
Then too, walnuts help you remember things… like the make-ahead party salad in last week’s blog entry I promised to post. That’s because of the huge amounts of the rarer fat component omega-3 that walnuts have. More
Can you spot the walnut hiding among all these other tasty tree nuts?
Verse 4
Walnuts, raw
Develop the jaw,
But walnuts, stewed,
Are more quietly chewed.
—with a gentle nod to Ogden Nash
I’m nuts for walnuts…
I lied, when I promised I’d stop waxing poetic about nuts. I forgot about the walnut, one of nature’s treasures! Carrying on with my nutty soliloquy, I present verse 4.
Crunchy or pureed, if we’re smart, walnuts will be found hiding on our plates in everything from soup to salads! I’m so impressed with walnuts’ healthy benefits, I hardly know where to begin… perhaps with the letter A. More
Mother Turtle, made from apples here, casts a healing spell among First Nations people.
The turtle myth…
In Native American stories, the turtle is a symbol for Mother Earth. This ancient animal commonly lives as long as 150 years. Its shell keeps her safe. And her slow even pace through life sets an example for people to keep going when the going gets tough. Turtle always makes time to enjoy each moment life has to offer.
To honor the turtle, I suggested to my friend Isla that we could make some for Christmas. “They’re so tasty!” I said. More
Our Sweet Patooty is not just another pretty face. There’s so much goodness under her skin, I hardly know where to start. She comes from a large family. There are at least 18 relatives you might meet at the supermarket. All of them bring great qualities to the table. Some have orange or reddish skins, while others are purple-skinned. The purple ones can have white or purple flesh. But we don’t discriminate based on the color of the skin… More
Cook Up a Story 