Black Girl Chef’s Whites

Winter means root vegetables…carrots, potatoes, squashes of all kinds, turnips, and parsnips.  Roasting root vegetables brings out their sweetness, making them a great side dish.  I developed this recipe to be featured on the Family Bites page from Foodbuzz, presented by Newman’s Own.  Please visit the site to more family friendly recipes using Newman’s Own products.

This salad adds a slight twist to your average roasted vegetable, by infusing them with a maximum flavor boost from vinaigrette while still hot, then allowing them to cool to room temperature before serving.

Roasted Vegetable Salad

1 bag (16 ounce) baby carrots

2 small sweet potatoes, cut into bite size pieces

1 package (8 ounce) crimini mushrooms, halved

1 large red onion, cut into bite size pieces

¼ cup olive oil

½ tsp salt

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 cup Newman’s Own Balsamic Vinaigrette

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place baby carrots, sweet potatoes, mushrooms and red onions into a large bowl.  Add olive oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat.
3. Spread the vegetables in a single layer onto a large baking sheet.
4. Roast the vegetables for 40 minutes, until tender.
5. Pour the balsamic vinaigrette over the hot vegetables, and let them cool on the baking sheet.
6. Serve the vegetable salad at room temperature.

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Sweet Potato Pie Gooey Bars

I’m a cereal fan.  I can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Although Captain Crunch will always hold a place deep in my heart, I have tried to find cereals more suited to my adult needs. But that does not mean I want to eat a cereal that I feel is better suited to the horses in the stable down the street.

I recently got a new cereal from Nature’s Path Organic called Flax Plus Maple Pecan Crunch, and as soon as I took the first bite I started thinking  of what I could make with it.  The maple, cinnamon and pecan flavor reminded me of something, but I could not put my finger on it. Then I realized it would pair well with sweet potatoes.

A sweet potato pie! But I don’t really like sweet potato pie.  Next!

A sweet potato pudding with a cereal crust.  I don’t know… kind of strange.

Sweet potato cheesecake… no sweet potato cheesecake bars!  That’s it!  Well, that wasn’t quite it.  Somewhere along the way my cheesecake bars turned into gooey bars.  But the flavor was so good, and the creamy, gooey texture was nice too.  Not cheesecake, but I liked it.

The great thing about this dessert is that you can use leftover roasted sweet potatoes, if you have them.  In fact, I would recommend roasting your potatoes instead of boiling them for better flavor when making these.

Sweet Potato Pie Gooey Bars

1 1/2 cups Nature’s Path Organic Flax Plus Maple Pecan Crunch

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 stick of butter, melted

1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, slightly softened

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

3 cups cooked sweet potato, about 4 small

2 TB light brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

pecan halves (optional)

Crust

Graham cracker crumbs and maple-pecan cereal

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place the cereal into a thick plastic zip top bag.  Crush the cereal with a rolling pin, or other heavy object.  Do not make the crumbs as fine as the graham cracker crumbs, but leave them a little bigger for added texture in the crust.

Maple-Pecan cereal ready to be crushed

In a medium bowl combine the cereal, graham cracker crumbs and sugar.

Graham cracker crumbs, maple-pecan cereal and sugar

Pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients and mix well until moistened.  The crumbs should hold together when you pinch them.  Coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.  Press the crumbs into the pan, making an even crust.  Bake the crust for 6-8 minutes, until crisp and slightly browned.  Let the crust cool completely.

Baked crust

Sweet Potato Pie Topping

While the crust is cooling, beat the cream cheese until smooth in a food processor.  I used a food processor because sweet potatoes often are stringy, and wanted to make sure my batter was smooth.

Cream cheese, sweet potato and sweetened condensed milk

Add the sweetened condensed milk and beat until incorporated.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the sweet potato, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and allspice. Beat until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.

Sweet potato topping

Pour the topping onto the cooled crust. Using a spatula spread the topping out to the edges of the crust.

Sweet potato topping on crust

Sweet potato topping swirled on crust

At this point you can place it in the refrigerator to firm up, or decorate it with the pecan halves.  I used the pecan halves to mark the area to cut the bars.  These are very rich, so I made decided to make them small.

Pecan halves on topping

These bars need to chill for at least 8 hours to overnight.  Once completely chilled the topping is still soft, but will hold it’s shape when cut.  But don’t attempt to pick them up with your fingers to eat them. Which is what my sister Karen called to inform me after I gave her some.

Karen: “They taste really good, but they don’t seem very cheesecakey to me. When I picked it up it broke apart, so I had to lick my fingers.”

Me:  “That’s why they are called gooey bars, not cheesecake bars.”

Whatever they are, I hope you make them and enjoy them.

Sweet Potato Pie Gooey Bars

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Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder

Summer has come and gone, and fall is upon us.  I love fall, when the weather gets cool and crisp.  Well, since I am back in Southern California, I’ll use my memories of life in NYC for the temperature.  My neighborhood does have a lot of trees that change color and lose their foliage, so while it may be 80 degrees, the red and yellow leaves begin falling gently to the ground.  The squirrels scurry about burying acorns, only to forget where they hid them. Yes they’re rodents, but they are cute rodents!

The bounty of produce in summer includes some of my favorite fruits and vegetables, but fall has it’s own luscious bounty.  Winter squashes, all sorts of potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, apples, pears, persimmons, quince, pumpkins…too many to name here.

When a cold spell hit, for all of two days, I wanted something warm and comforting in my belly.  I had just made 8 quarts of chicken stock the previous weekend, so soup came to mind.  In my freezer was a giant Costco size bag of organic corn. Oh yes…corn chowder.  If it was still summer I would have used fresh corn, but frozen works just as well.  But in the interest of doing something different I decided to try using sweet potatoes instead of the usual white potatoes for my chowder.  Salty bacon, sweet potatoes and corn…yeah that would work.  At least I hoped it would, since I was developing this recipe for the first time.

Lucky for me and you too, it turned out to be rich and scrumptious.

Chowder Ingredient Still Life

Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder

5 slices bacon, thinly sliced

4 TB butter

1 medium onion, small dice

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 medium sweet potatoes (yams), small dice

2 quarts chicken stock

1 large sprig fresh thyme

6 cups corn kernels, thawed if frozen

1 cup milk, half and half or cream

In a large stock pot over medium high heat, saute the bacon until crispy.  Remove and reserve the bacon.  Melt the butter in the rendered bacon fat, then add the onions. Cook about 5 minutes, until the onions have softened.  Stirring constantly, add the flour, salt and pepper.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, until lightly golden.  This is a basic roux, which will help thicken your soup.

Browning Roux

Add the sweet potatoes, and stir about 1 minute, until they are covered in the roux.  The mixture should be fairly dry at this point, as the flour will have absorbed the fat.

Sweet Potatoes and Onions in Roux

Add the stock and thyme sprig, stirring well to mix all the ingredients together.  Don’t worry about removing the leaves from the thyme sprig, as they will come off as the soup cooks. When the soup is done you can remove the bare twig, as that is NOT edible. Bring the stock to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft.

Thyme Sprig in Stock

Add the corn kernels and cook about 10 minutes for the flavors to meld. Turn off the heat, then stir in the milk, half and half or cream. If you want the soup to be very rich use cream.  I used milk and it was still delicious.

Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder

Serve your soup with crusty bread and a nice glass of wine.  OK, you don’t have to have the wine, but I sure enjoyed mine!

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