This recipe is inspired by a side dish we had at a restaurant lately. Polly ordered roasted sweet potatoes with romesco, and Julia and I couldn’t stop eating it. (Sorry, Polly!) Romesco is traditionally thickened with bread, but I leave that out. So many people have food restrictions now, and I don’t see a purpose for the bread—this romesco has a great consistency without it.
What Is Romesco Sauce?
Just like any authentic dish from any culture, all recipes will vary from household to household. But usually the ingredients are red bell peppers, onions, garlic, lemon juice, and usually tomato. Some variations of the Spanish sauce will use mostly tomato with little to no red pepper, while others have mostly red pepper and a little tomato. Mine leans more on the red pepper side, and I use Roma tomatoes for less moisture. I also add a little parsley to this specific romesco because I feel its bitterness is a nice complement to the sweet potatoes. After everything is roasted and soft, you add the fresh parsley to the warm vegetables and blitz it in the food processor. This adds a fresh punch!
How to Make Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Romesco
I like to roast the vegetables with thyme sprigs to get that aroma into the dish. Those get discarded after roasting. Since you’re roasting the sweet potatoes as well, use a large roasting pan and do it all at once. The sweet potatoes are peeled and diced, then tossed with avocado oil and our Overachiever Seasoning. As for the romesco, I don’t season the vegetables while they’re cooking; I wait until I blend it in the food processor to add the seasonings. Roast everything at 375° in a convection oven.
I like to toast the almonds first, but you could also start with dry toasted, unsalted, sliced almonds. It’s easier on the blender and mixes in well, but for this specific dish, I’ll keep out a tablespoon or so of the almonds to have some bigger pieces in the sauce.
Overachiever Seasoning
I add my signature spice blend to almost every savory dish I create. Now available to purchase!
shop nowWhat (Else) to Serve with Romesco
Romesco is super versatile. It’s great to put on fish, chicken, or lamb. It’s also great for dipping fries or serving over other roasted vegetables—it’s gonna wow people.
Can You Make This Dish Ahead of Time?
You can make the romesco ahead of time, and store it in the fridge. Without using bread, there might be a bit of separation with the oil and vegetables, but with a quick stir, it’s good as new. Just be sure to roast the sweet potatoes the night you’ll serve them so you can have that perfectly crispy texture. The longer the sauce sits on the potatoes, the more softened they’ll be (the dish is still tasty that way, with more of a potato salad texture).
The romesco sauce has this wonderful toasty, nutty, savory flavor that feels like the epitome of fall when added to crisp-roasted sweet potatoes. Since it’s not spicy, it lets each ingredient come forward. I think you’ll love this side dish!
Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Homemade Romesco Sauce
Ingredients:
- 3 large sweet potatoes peeled, diced
- 1/2 tsp Hey Old Sport Overachiever seasoning (or 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper)
For the Romesco Sauce
- 3 roasted red bell peppers jarred works, or roast them yourself over an open flame on a range burner or grill and peel.
- 2 Roma tomatoes
- 1 sweet onion peeled, cut into quarters
- 1 bulb garlic top cut off to reveal the individual cloves
- 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
- 1/3 cup good quality olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley
- TT Hey Old Sport Overachiever seasoning
Directions:
Make the Romesco
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F with a sheet pan inside. Once up to temp, remove the sheet pan and add the Roma tomatoes, sweet onion quarters and bulb of garlic. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and season with Overachiever seasoning. Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the tomato skins blister and split and the garlic softens.
- Remove the sheet pan from the oven. Peel the tomatoes and add them to a blender, along with the roasted red peppers, roasted sweet onion, almonds, lemon zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, and fresh parsley. Squeeze the garlic bulb to release the cloves into the blender as well, discarding the bulb itself.
- Blend the sauce until uniform in consistency, seasoning to taste with more Overachiever and lemon juice.
Roast the sweet potatoes
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F with a sheet pan inside. Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil and a Overachiever seasoning. Once the oven and pan are heated, add the sweet potatoes and roast on the convection setting for 10-15 minutes, until browning starts and the potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven.
Finish
- Gently toss the sweet potatoes with some of the romesco sauce until coated. Serve warm.
When will the overachiever seasoning be available? You use it in every recipe now so we really can’t use your recipes until it’s available. Or you could give a substitute so we can get started.
We’re planning to have it available before end of the month, but you could always swap in salt & pepper for a still-good-but-not-as-good version of the recipes. :)