Roasted Sweet Potato and Chorizo Lettuce Wraps

You may have noticed I've taken a long break from root vegetables, even though it was wintertime.  I made a few too many soups and sides of roasted butternut squash last fall and by mid-December I'd had enough.  I took advantage of the warm winter to eat vegetables we don't usually get in February and avoided squashes and sweet potatoes.  They felt too heavy in my tummy!



The Monkey Scientist, to be honest, wasn't all too pleased with my boycott.  He likes his root veggies!  So when this recipe came around for sweet potatoes used in a light and refreshing way, I jumped on it.  I'm slowly letting the root veggies back into my kitchen.  The fact that this recipe included perhaps our favorite ingredient - chorizo sausage - certainly didn't hurt its cause.  Usually I save recipes for the backburner, but this one I saw and printed immediately to make that night!



The first thing I loved was the roasted corn.  I'd never think to roast corn!  In the summers we have always eaten tons of corn on the cob, and I love it in salad and cornbread, but that's about the extent of my uses for corn.  Now that I realized how easily I can roast frozen corn, I want to try it in all sorts of new dishes - pasta, wraps, sandwiches!  The possibilities are endless!



I also want to mention this little juicer.  It was a Christmas gift from one of my mom's best friends and I love it! I'm the queen of dropping lemon/lime seeds into whatever I'm cooking, but this catches all of them, along with the pulp.  It's totally fantastic and I recommend you pick one up if you ever juice citrus for cooking.



You may have noticed I slashed the cilantro from the original recipe.  If you follow this blog, you know it's because I think cilantro tastes like soap and no one should ever have to eat it.  Of course, if you disagree, just ignore me.  I guess you could add cilantro to the yogurt sauce, the filling, and added back on top of each wrap.  But don't expect me to eat it if you do! Blech!

Speaking of which, we had neighbors growing up with the last name Blech (like Bleck) and every time my dad would say their name he'd always pronounce it the way I would if I'd just eaten cilantro.  It always cracked me up... they were such nice people but what an unfortunate last name. I digress....



This was such a yummy dinner.  It had so many flavor components.  The potatoes and corn add earthy sweetness, but with a bit of spice from the cayenne.  The chorizo is spicy but is sweetened by the caramelized onions.  Then everything is cooled down by the yogurt sauce and feta, which is tangy and fresh.  Finally, the lettuce and extra lime juice add the perfect bit of citrus.  This is an absolutely fantastic meal!



Roasted Sweet Potato and Chorizo Lettuce Wraps
slightly adapted from Perry's Plate

Ingredients
filling
2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 c frozen or fresh corn
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cayenne
pinch of salt
1 c chopped onion (I used frozen)
16 ounces chorizo, removed from casing
juice from 1/2 a lime
yogurt sauce
1 c Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 tsp garlic salt
wraps
1 head of Boston lettuce (or Bibb or butter, leaves separated and rinsed well
1 c crumbled feta
additional lime wedges, for garnish

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. On a foil rimmed baking sheet, toss the sweet potatoes and corn with 2 tbsp olive oil, cumin, cayenne, and salt. Spread everything evenly across the plate and roast 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes, until potatoes are tender and there are brown spots on the vegetables.
2. When the vegetables are finished, set aside. Then, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until brown and caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. If you use frozen onions, you may want to add a pinch of sugar to help with the caramelization process.
3. Add the chorizo to the skillet and chop with the back of a wooden spoon until broken apart. Cook until they turn almost completely brown, but not quite, about 5-7 minutes.
4. Add the sweet potato mixture to the skillet along with the juice of 1/2 a lime. Stir and cook until the chorizo is completely cooked, and then remove from heat.
5. Combine the Greek yogurt, lime juice, and garlic salt in a small bowl.
6. Assemble the wraps by placing a bit of yogurt in the bottom of a piece of lettuce, adding a few large spoonfuls of the filling, and topping with a few pinches of feta.

Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls

There is something so absolutely wonderful about baking bread.  The smell of yeast when you first bring it back to life. The texture of dough that has just finished rising.  The aroma that fills the apartment while it bakes.  The warm steam that rises as you break a roll open.  It's something magical.



And yet, it's been so long since I last baked bread.  It's such a shame.  The truth is, I just don't eat that much bread in a regular week.  Not to say I'm not a huge carb-loader, but pasta tends to be my gluten of choice.  But, with the holidays coming up, I wanted to try some dinner roll recipes that we could use for Thanksgiving.



I decided to halve this recipe because I knew it would probably just be the two of us eating them.  Let me rephrase... I decided to halve this recipe so I wouldn't eat 30 dinner rolls in one sitting.  Because, believe me, I would have.  (By the way, half a large egg = 1/8 cup scrambled egg)  Half of the recipe actually only made a dozen rolls instead of 15, which was great because I only needed to make one batch (I only have 1 muffin tin). I also decided that I would top some of them with fun spices - some with garlic salt, a few with cinnamon sugar, and even one with smoked salt from Trader Joe's.




All of the rolls came out absolutely amazing.  The cinnamon sugar was by far my favorite - next time I'd probably put cinnamon sugar in the butter that you use to coat the muffin tins as well.  I served them with Roasted Pumpkin and Lentil Soup with Chorizo that I had hidden from myself in the freezer.  Don't you love when you do that?  I liked sopping up the soup with the bread - so tasty.

The best part about these rolls is the clover shape.  It looks absolutely adorable, but it also makes the rolls easy to peel into thirds.  It made a perfect excuse to keep eating more - "oh I'm just going to have 1 more clover of a roll!"  It seems perfectly reasonable to leave behind 2/3 of a roll when it splits off so nicely!  I should also mention that I used bread flour instead of AP flour, simply because I was all out of the regular stuff.  I don't think it affected them at all, so feel free to use whichever you have hanging around.  Either way, you should definitely make these.  (Just make sure you account for enough time for the first and second rise!) I promise you won't regret it!



Buttery Cloverleaf Rolls
from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:
4 1/2 teaspoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons salt
5 1/2-6 cups all-purpose flour, or more if needed
melted butter for brushing

Instructions:
1. In the bowl of your electric mixer (with an attached dough hook), combine warm water, yeast, olive oil and 1 tablespoon honey and mix with a spoon. Let sit until foamy, about 10-15 minutes.
2. Add warm milk, remaining honey, egg and butter, and mix on low speed until just combined, then add in 2 cups of flour and salt. Mix on low speed, gradually increasing to medium as flour becomes incorporated.
3. Slowly add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time, stopping at 5 cups. Knead the dough on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, then check to see if the dough is sticky. If it is too sticky, add a bit more flour and knead until it becomes smooth, but you want some stick to it. Remove dough from the bowl and form into a ball with your hands, covering with a bit more flour until it is no longer sticking to your hands.
4. Brush a large bowl with melted butter. Add dough to the bowl, turning once or twice to cover in butter. Place a towel over top and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours.
5. Punch dough down, then transfer to a floured workspace. Tear small pieces of dough off the larger piece, and roll into balls slightly larger than one inch wide. You will end up with about 90 dough balls. Brush a muffin tin with melted butter, then add 3 dough balls to each tin. Cover and let rise again, in a warm spot, for about an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush the tops of each clover with a hefty glug of melted butter. Bake for 11-12 minutes (mine actually took closer to 20 minutes), or until tops are just golden brown. Remove from oven and brush tops with melted butter again, repeating the brushing another few times as the rolls cool (I actually skipped this step and they were buttery enough!) Remove from the tins and serve.

The muffins are best when eaten on the same day they were baked, however if you’d like to make them the day before, make sure to let them cool completely and store in an air-tight container.

Simple Lunch: Salad with Goat Cheese, Cukes, and Tahini

Based on the fact you don't see a new blog post every day, you must realize I don't make a big extravagant dish for every meal.  A lot of things are so simple they don't seem blog-worthy.  Sometimes, though, the most simple dishes are exactly what you're looking for and all you need is a little inspiration!

When I don't have much time to throw something together - which is almost always the case in the morning when I'm making my lunch - I love to make a simple salad.  I'm not a big salad dressing person (the ingredient list always frightens me) so finding new inspiring ways to top my salad is always a big challenge.  Often I go with some fresh squeezed lemon and garlic salt, but lemons get really expensive when you can't grow them yourself!  This week, I tried topping it with tahini paste and hot sauce - it was a fun, healthy, flavorful alternative to dressing.

I hope my recipe will inspire some new ingredients for your salad (I was inspired by my falafel burgers!).  I meant to add raisins but forgot at the last minute.  I would have loved to add some bell pepper (I used to hate these when I was younger, now I can't stop eating them!) but I had run out.  You can just feel free to use anything you have on hand!

Simple Salad with Goat Cheese, Cucumbers, and Tahini

Ingredients:
1 cup lettuce (I used mixed baby greens)
2 tbsp goat cheese
1/4 c cucumbers, sliced
1 1/2 tbsp tahini paste
8 dashes hot sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot)
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1/3 tsp garlic salt
freshly ground pepper

Instructions:
1. In a large bowl or tupperware, combine lettuce, goat cheese, and cucumbers.
2. Drizzle tahini over veggies and cheese. Dash with hot sauce. Sprinkle with ginger powder, garlic salt, and pepper.
3. Place lid on tupperware, or a plate over the bowl, and shake well to mix all the ingredients. (Make sure lid is on or you're holding the plate tight so you dont have salad all over the floor!)