Roasted Sweet Potato With Caramelised Pecans

This roasted sweet potato recipe is a perfect side dish for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It starts with soft, caramelised sweet potato, crunchy caramelised pecans and sweet onions. It's the perfect balance of sweet and salty, plus it's entirely vegan too! This roasted sweet potato can also be done ahead of time and then just warmed up or cooked in the oven alongside a roast too! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

I love this roasted sweet potato salad so much that we happily eat it warm, cold or hot! It's delicious any way and we sometimes eat it for lunch with some bread if we are after a quick lunch. Sometimes we toss in some crumbled feta, sometimes we grill some pita bread to eat it with. Sometimes I pair it with some chicken or beef leftovers. There is nothing that this roasted sweet potato doesn't go with really! Ok maybe dessert ;) I know that some of my American readers tend to enjoy sweet sweet potato dishes for Thanksgiving (eg marshmallow topped sweet potatoes) but this one is a mixture of sweet and salty.

Tips For Making This Roasted Sweet Potato Dish

1 - When cutting sweet potato into cubes, cut one side and lay the sweet potato down on that flat side for safer cutting.

2 - I like adding spices to give this dish more aroma and flavour. A bit of cumin in the sweet potato adds warmth but also a "meaty"aroma and cinnamon in the caramelised pecans gives it warmth and brings out the sweetness.

3 - You can make the caramelised pecans up to 4 days ahead of time (just don't eat them all, I found myself nibbling on them and had to make another batch haha!).

4 - Don't forget to line the tray with parchment or all of that sticky, caramelised goodness will stick to the tray. You can roast the onion wedges and sweet potato on one large parchment lined tray if you have an XL tray.

5 - Double this recipe if you are feeding a large crowd.

6 - You can replace the pecans with other nuts. I love caramelising walnuts this way too!

7 - Adding salt is really important in this dish otherwise it ends up being too sweet.

Other Sweet Potato Recipes You Might Like:

• Sweet Potato & Kale Salad (my favourite!)
• Sweet Potato Mash
• Vegan Chocolate Cake With Sweet Potato Frosting
• Sweet Potato Nachos

I made these shortly after we came back from holidays. We were worried about getting sick on while away, especially being away on a cruise but we ended up being totally fine. I was even fine with the chillier than expected weather in Santorini which is when I usually get sick.

Everything was great until the flight home when we picked up a bug and both Mr NQN and I came crashing down. It started with my throat and then I head a head cold. One day later Mr NQN had the same. The main challenge with being sick for me is that testing recipes is hard when you can't fully taste everything. Having said that, we were so grateful that we weren't sick while on holidays and that it was saved up for when we got back!

When I made this roasted sweet potato I knew that it was delicious because I could taste it through my blocked nose and congestion. Not only does it have flavour but it has crunch and a balance between sweet and salty. I'd find myself snacking on it between meals too! Save this for Thanksgiving or Christmas - or pretty much any time that you want a healthy snack to feast on!

So tell me Dear Reader, what do you tend to snack on? And what is your favourite way to cook sweet potato? Roasted? Mashed? Or some other way?

Roasted Sweet Potato With Caramelised Pecans

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes (concurrently)

Serves: 4

Sweet Potatoes

• 2 onions, around 300g/10.6ozs
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 800g/28ozs sweet potatoes
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Caramelised Pecans

• 100g/3.5ozs pecan pieces
• 40g/1.4ozs brown sugar
• 15g/0.5oz butter
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Step 1 - First put the onions onto roast as they will take the longest. Line a baking tray with parchment and preheat oven to 180C/350F fan forced. Peel the outer skin and cut them into sixths into wedges. Toss in 2 tablespoons of oil and then roast for 30-40 minutes or until caramelised. While they are roasting, line another baking tray and peel the sweet potatoes and cut into bite sized chunks. Toss the sweet potato chunks in the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil with the ground cumin and garlic powder. Spread out on the baking tray (if you have a really large baking tray for the pumpkin you can add these onto that tray) and roast for 25 minutes or until caramelised.

Step 2 -While the vegetables are roasting make the caramelised pecans. Line a baking tray with parchment. Heat a non stick frying pan on medium heat and then melt the butter and then stir in the brown sugar to form a caramel. Add in the pecans and cinnamon and toss coating each piece well with the caramel. Do this for a maximum of 5 minutes. Spread out onto the parchment lined tray and allow to cool for 10 minutes. They will become crunchy when cooled (avoid touching them with your hands as they will be HOT).

Step 3-Once the onions and sweet potato are done you can place them on a serving tray and season well with salt and pepper. Only add the pecans at the last minute just before serving so that they stay extra crunchy!