Easiest and Best Sweet Potato Side Dish with Browned Butter and Sage
Sweet potatoes is one of my favorite vegetable as it is so versatile. It can be used to make sweet or savory dishes. Today, you'll learn how to bring out the true natural sweetness to this root vegetable and make a delicious and crazy easy and comforting side dish for dinner.
It starts with placing the sweet potatoes in the oven for a couple of hours. You read that right - a couple of hours in a low temperature allows the sweet potato starches to break down and transform into a form of sugar. In fact, when you pull them out of the oven, you'll notice each sweet potato will be surrounded in a syrupy liquid. Once you try this method, you'll be hooked.
Ingredients:
2-3 lbs Sweet potatoes, uncut
1 stick, Salted butter
5-6 Sage leaves (optional)
Step 1
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes and place on a cookie/baking sheet pan. Bake for 3 hours for larger sweet potatoes (with a diameter of 3-inches or more) or 2.5 hours for smaller and narrow sweet potatoes (with a diameter of 3-inches or less),
Step 2
Remove sweet potatoes from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Begin to brown the butter at this time. After a few minutes, the sweet potatoes should have cooled enough to scoop out. Split each in half and scoop out the soft flesh and place in a serving dish; mash as you scoop and place in the dish. You'll find that the flesh is really really soft and has mostly separated from the skin. .
Step 3
Place the stick of butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat and stir regularly. It will take some time to brown but you'll need to keep a close eye on it because once it gets to that browning point, it needs to be removed from the heat right away or it will burn and this can happen fast!
Step 4
Once the butter is simmering and foamy, place the sage leaves in the butter. Use a spoon to move the foam and keep an eye on the color of the butter and the sage. Once the sage has crisped up, use the spoon to remove it from the butter and crumble over the sweet potatoes.
You'll notice some amber-colored bits in the butter after a few minutes. once you notice this, turn the heat off and give the butter a stir. Pour it over the sweet potatoes and serve.
Enjoy! Let me know how you like it!
