Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Kale and Prosciutto

Yo peeps! Hope all is well and we're all stickin' with those resolutions. To be honest I've felt myself slipping the past few days. So to combat that, I signed up for a marathon relay in August. Yeah, it's only 5 miles. Yeah, it's 7 months away. But running has always been rough for me, so I'm gonna need that much time to get myself ready. But hey, this way I have to exercise... right?

Enough small talk, on with the food. I gotta tell ya, this one came as a surprise to me. I was reading through my Flavor Bible, and landed on sweet potatoes. One of the flavor affinities listed was sweet potatoes + kale + prosciutto. Never would have thought. But I looked at a few other suggested pairings, did some cross referencing and decided to dive in. And I'm glad I did, because it was surprisingly enjoyable. Check it.

As I mentioned in the last post, Jules and I are back on track with the gluten-free cooking. It's been a tough shift, all over again, but dishes like this make it totally doable. Reading in The Flavor Bible that kale pairs nicely with sweet potatoes, it made me think of my roasted potatoes with kale pesto dish. The idea is similar, but the result tastes completely different. And the color is stunning. Here's what you need:

For the roasted potatoes:
• 4 medium sweet potatoes
• 1.5 Tbsp cooking oil
• salt and pepper

First, preheat your oven to 450 and place your baking sheet into the oven as it preheats. While that's heating up, peel the potatoes and dice them (large dice). Place in a bowl and add the oil, a couple pinches of salt and black pepper. Toss to coat.

Once the pan is heated, remove it from the oven (and close the door so you don't let heat escape) and pour the potatoes on the pan. Spread them out evenly into one layer, then quickly put back in the oven. Open the door every 5 minutes or so and gently shake the pan to keep the potatoes from sticking. Bake for about 20 minutes. While it's baking...

Make the kale and prosciutto stuff. Here's what you need:

For the kale/prosciutto stuff:
• 2 kale leaves, washed really, really well
• 1/4 cup light-tasting extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clementine orange
• 2-3 small garlic cloves (1 large one)
• 8 thin slices of prosciutto
• kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper

Nothing tricky here. Cut the leaves from the stems of the kale (discard the stems) and finely chop them. Finely chop the prosciutto and add it to the kale. Using a microplane, zest the clementine (you want maybe 1-2 teaspoons of zest), then cut it in half and squeeze the juice from it into the kale and prosciutto (also add the zest). Mince the garlic or put it through a garlic press and add that to the mix, too. Then add the olive oil, a couple pinches of salt and a couple grinds of black pepper. Mix that all up.

Set that aside until the sweet potatoes are finished.

Once the sweet potatoes start getting little black spots, remove them from the oven and put them straight into a bowl.

Immediately add the kale mix, while the potatoes are still piping hot and gently mix around, being careful not to mash the sweet potatoes. See, we added raw garlic to that kale stuff, and that can be pretty intense (i.e., not at all enjoyable). So you add the kale mix to the potatoes while they're still really hot because the potatoes will gently cook the garlic and remove the harshness. Once mixed, let sit for a minute, then mix again and let sit for another minute. Plate and serve.

This dish is easily made vegetarian, simply by replacing the prosciutto with a comparable amount of finely-chopped parmesan cheese. If you're not vegetarian (I'm not), serve with a simple roasted chicken or pan-seared ribeye. Where sweet potatoes can be somewhat heavy, the kale and citrus go a long way to lighten it up.

What's your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes? Any uncommon flavor combos you've found that blew your mind at how good they were? This one really did surprise me, and I hope you enjoy it too. Cheers, all!

Print Recipe

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Kale and Prosciutto

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time25 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients

For the Roasted Potatoes:

• 4 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cooking oil
• salt and pepper

For the Kale Mix:

• 2 leaves of kale washed really well
• 1/4 cup light-tasting extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clementine orange
• 2-3 small cloves of garlic
• 8 thin slices of prosciutto
• salt and pepper

Instructions

To roast the sweet potatoes:

• Place an empty baking sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 450.
• Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into large dice. Toss the potatoes with the cooking oil, a couple pinches of salt and a couple grinds of black pepper.
• Once the oven has come to temperature and the pan inside is very hot, remove the pan from the oven quickly and close the door, being sure not to let too much heat out of the oven. Pour the potatoes onto the hot pan and spread out in one even layer. Quickly place the pan back in the oven.
• Roast the potatoes for approximately 20 minutes, opening the door every 5 minutes to give the pan a shake, to keep the potatoes from sticking.

While the potatoes are roasting, make the kale mix:

• Remove the kale leaves from the stems and finely chop them. Discard the stems.
• Finely chop the prosciutto and add to the kale.
• Using a microplane, zest the clementine until you have about 1-2 teaspoons of zest. Add that to the kale.
• Cut the clementine in half and squeeze the juice from each half into the kale.
• Mince the garlic or put it through a garlic press, and add it to the kale
• Add the olive oil, a couple pinches of salt and a couple grinds of black pepper. Mix well and set aside.

Assemble:

• Once the potatoes begin to get black spots on them, they are done. Quickly remove them from the pan into a bowl, and immediately add the kale mixture so the heat from the potatoes can cook out the harshness of the garlic.
• Toss gently, taking care not to mash the sweet potatoes. Let set for about a minute, then toss gently again and let sit for one more minute. Plate and serve.