First in a series of Thanksgiving posts. I know it’s way too late for this year, but in case you want to really, really plan ahead…

As I was looking for a new way to make sweet potatoes this year, I found this recipe from 101 Cookbooks, and I’m so glad I decided to try it. The coconut milk and ginger are a nice departure from the usual brown sugar and pecans or marshmallows, and they are just sweet enough but not overly so. I adapted the recipe slightly from the original, using hazelnuts instead of macadamias, and adding a bit of brown sugar. The leftovers were great in pancakes, which I’ll share sometime soon.

Sweet Potatoes with Coconut and Hazelnuts

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

As pictured above, enough to feed a crowd (at least 10), so you might want to halve it

4-5 medium to large sweet potatoes (about 5 lb)
2/3 c coconut milk
2 T grated fresh ginger
2 T maple syrup
1/2 t salt
2-3 T butter
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c shredded coconut
1/2 c chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. Poke sweet potatoes with a fork and wrap in foil, or place on a cookie sheet (otherwise they may drip sugar and make a mess in your oven – yes I learned this the hard way). Bake for about an hour, until the “meat” of the potato is completely tender to a fork.

Let the potatoes cool a bit, and peel. Mash with coconut milk, ginger, maple syrup, and salt. Adjust the amount of coconut milk until desired texture is reached. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Place in a large casserole dish. (Can be done up to a few days ahead up to this point.)

Dot with butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Then top with coconut and hazelnuts. Bake at 350 F until potatoes are hot and top is browned, about 30 minutes.

Tags: Holiday, Side Dish, Thanksgiving, Vegetable

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Holiday, Recipes, Side Dish, Thanksgiving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.