Spiced Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Last week we joined friends from@thefeedfeed for a fall harvest dinner put together by the spice maker Simply Organics. It was a potluck and we contributed one of our all-time favorite Athlete Food recipes, Spiced Sweet Potatoes and Apples. We’ve made some adjustments to this recipe to speed up the process and have a new way to arrange the apples. Enjoy!

Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Serves 8

For the sweet potatoes:

5 pounds sweet potatoes (variety of your choice)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon kosher salt

7-8 grinds black pepper

¼ cup olive oil

For the apples:

4-6 medium-sized apples (about 1 ¼ pounds), we used a mix of fresh picked Golden Delicious and Macoun apples

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Topping:

1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Cook the sweet potatoes:

Set the oven to 375° F. Scrub sweet potatoes, and poke holes all over each one with a pairing knife. Set sweet potatoes on a sheet tray and put the tray in the oven. Don’t wait for the oven to heat up to 375° F; let the oven heat up with the sweet potatoes inside. Bake until very soft, 45 minutes for small potatoes (hot dog-sized), up to 1 ½ hours for large ones (burrito-sized).

OR, to save time, you can cook them in the microwave by poking with holes, wrapping with paper towels and cooking on high for 5-10 minutes until soft.

Mix the sweet potatoes and spices:

Cut each sweet potato in half horizontally and scoop out the insides, taking care not to include any bits of skin or the fibrous layer right under it. Put sweet potatoes into a mixing bowl.

Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt, black pepper, and oil to the sweet potatoes. Stir the mixture forcefully with a wooden spoon until it appears smooth.

Transfer the spiced sweet potatoes to a baking dish. This will also be the dish you are serving it in, so choose a nice one! Smooth the potatoes with a spatula to create a flat surface.

Prepare the apples, and bake:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Cut the apples into half-inch half-moon-shaped slices, keeping the skin on. Keep the apple slices together. See images below for the how to.

Place each bundle of apples on the flat layer of sweet potatoes in a checkerboard design. Place

Sprinkle with lemon juice, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon nutmeg.

Bake until the apples are soft, about 25 minutes.

Sprinkle with hazelnuts before serving.