What is not to love about the sounds of a potato hitting the frying pan, sizzling way to a golden brown, crunchy perfection? Maybe the fact that there is not a ton of nutrition to be had. Could we do better and still be satisfied? Oh yes, yes we can! The autumn season is the perfect time to find healthier options. There is two ways you can go with this, that would work out great - sweet potato and squash.
Selecting the Best Sweet Potato
Sweet potatoes are readily available at great prices in the fall, especially as turkey day approaches. The best part is the opportunity to buy not just your ordinary sweet potato, but the Stokes Purple Sweet Potato from Stokes Foods in North Carolina and Frieda's Speciality Produce in California. These sweets are purple inside and out! I absolutely love these things. I have used them to make gnoochi and the best oven roasted sweet potato fries.
Selecting the Squash
A lot of hard squash are available year around, but only in the fall can you find the Delicata squash, also called sweet potato squash. It has a thinner skin that can be eaten so you don't have to peel it. It also has a sweet potato like flavor, perfect to pair up with a sweet potato!
When I combined these two, not only did it make for a fine photo opportunity, but the difference in flavor made this side dish really shine. I love combining two similar things with varying flavors, reason why I love buying multiple colored carrots. It's so satisfying to be able to enjoy those difference. Takes a simple dish and elevates it.
Cooking Note
One thing I want to point out about this recipe is it can be a challenge to have both the purple sweet and the Delicata finish cooking at the same time. I found that the purple sweet potato took longer to cook. To counteract this issue, I added a bit of water to the pan and reduce the temperature until everything finished cooking. Then cranked it back up to get all out that water out there to make sure it was nice and crispy on the outside. Worked to perfection!
Ingredients
- 1 large purple sweet potato peeled and cubed
- 1 large Delicata squash cubed and not peeled
- cooking oil canola, sunflower, grape seed, vegetable
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- ketchup optional
Instructions
- Place the cubed sweet potato and Delicata squash into a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
- Coat the bottom of your a frying pan with oil.
- Heat the pan up over medium high heat. When hot add the squash and sweet potato.
- Cook until browned and cooked all the way through.
- If you find that either two are completely browned but still not soft enough in the middle, then add a bit of water, reduce the heat and cook until soft in the middle. Then boil off all the water and crisp up the squash and sweet potato, being careful not to burn them.
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