Recipe: Oven roasted sweet potatoes by David Theiss

Easter has come and gone and inevitably your fridge will be stocked full with leftovers from that large family dinner. Being creative with the leftover scraps is always a challenge, especially if there’s a lot left to eat. Ham, being a popular main course for Easter dinners, can be easily used up with traditional ham sandwiches or flavorings for soups or beans; but the creativity is applied when figuring out what to do with the leftover sides. To help you with that challenge, I’m going to suggest a recipe using those unused sweet potatoes and another ingredient: nutritional yeast. You’re right in guessing it sounds like a health food ingredient, but why use it in leftovers? Let’s first talk about nutritional yeast.

Nutritional yeast in this country is often referred to as “hippie dust,” or “nooch” and has been used for centuries. It differs from live yeast as it has been pasteurized to deactivate it, so it doesn’t activate with moisture. This incredible nutritious ingredient is a complete protein, has no MSG, dairy, or glutens, and is a significant source of B complex vitamins, iron, riboflavin, thiamine, niacin, and folic acid. This vegan staple is a tan, flaky or powdery ingredient and has a light and delicious nutty, buttery and Parmesan cheese flavor. It’s incredibly versatile and can be sprinkled on salads, baked potatoes, popcorn, or even used in a variety of recipes like vegan macaroni and cheese, scrambled eggs, soups, and my suggestion: oven roasted sweet potatoes.

It’s delicious and really adds a great depth of umami flavor to cooking! Nutritional yeast can be found at your favorite health food store or on the bulk aisle of your grocery store.

For this recipe I suggest chopping up about a cup of that leftover Easter ham as an additional ingredient, but the potatoes are equally as tasty without the ham.

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

Large sweet potatoes

3 tablespoons olive or avocado oil

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 cup chopped ham

Directions:

Peel sweet potatoes and slice in rounds approximately 1/4 inch thick.

Place potatoes in a glass baking pan — rub some of the oil on the pan first to help keep them from sticking.

Drizzle oil all over the potatoes, dump the ham pieces over the potatoes and work them in to spread them out. Sprinkle all the dry seasonings over the top.

Bake covered for 45 minutes at 350 degrees, then uncover and bake for another 20 minutes and serve.

Enjoy!

David Theiss is the owner of Butler Gourmet Meats and a longtime resident of Carson City.