Cold Sweet Potato Salad

I love sweet potatoes. I LOVE them. more than pumpkin, more than butternut squash, more than most other vegetables I believe. I recently discovered that unfortunately, sweet potatoes are not much better for you than regular potatoes, particularly once peeled...but they are still a bit better and they taste amazing. I think orange veggies in general are my top choice, but these delectable yammy things are definitely the best.

Since it has been super hot recently, I have been looking for ways to prepare things with minimal oven/stove usage. Hence, cold soups, salads, slaws, etc. In my journey to Australia one of the actually good things the cafeteria served (on rare occasions) was a cold sweet potato salad. Fairly simple in ingredients, i never procured a specific recipe, but I ate it enough to make some educated guesses as to the ingredients, and looking online for other sweet potato salad recipes I was able to come up with a cold salad that satisfied my tastebuds to the max.

Here is the recipe, I hope it is as enjoyable to others as it was for me! One note, I am picky and for me the consistency of the sweet potato needs to be good: baked enough that it is not crunchy, but also not mushy either, to really set of this dish well. But if that doesn't matter to you, it really doesn't effect the flavor in the slightest.

Cold Sweet Potato Salad

Ingredients

3 med. or lg. Sweet Potatoes

4 c. Baby Arugula

2 Tbsp Rosemary

2 tsp Parsley

1 Roasted Red Pepper, chopped

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

¼ of a lg. Red Onion (about ½ cup chopped)

2 Tbsp of the Roasted Red Pepper Juice (if it came from a jar) or 2 extra Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Lime Juice or Lemon Juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Process

-          Preheat oven to 400 F, cube the sweet potatoes in 1 inch pieces, place on greased baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or so, until softened and not crunchy, but not mushable either (should still hold their shape when forked). Allow to cool

-         
       Mix the Arugula, Rosemary, Red Pepper, Olive Oil, and Onion in a large bowl

-          Add the Sweet Potato, remaining Olive Oil/Red Pepper juice, Lime/Lemon Juice, Salt and Pepper. Mix well

-          Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Notes

-          Might also be good with a tad of mint instead of the Parsley.

Soy Free Stirfry 'Soy' Sauce that actually tastes very similar to regular Stirfry Sauce. Best use for Vegemite

Remember all that Vegemite you brought back from Australia? That weird tasting, yeasty, salty, brown stuff? Well I have stumbled upon what is possibly the best use for Vegemite ever!

My sister is allergic to all things Soy. This means (of course) that Soy-Sauce is absolutely out of the question. The severe drawback of this is it pretty much cuts out any sort of stir-fry type foods. We have tried making them with other sauce alternatives, but have not found them to be even remotely close in yummy-ness to Soy Sauce sauces.

SOLUTION! VEGEMITE! Upon my return from Australia I brought back with me several packets of this stuff for various relatives and friends to try (since Vegemite is totally and completely an Australian experience...whether or not it is a good tasting experience depends on the person). However, I brought way too much, so we have been trying to find some sort of use for it. Well, its salty, and brown, so, let us try it as a Soy-Sauce substitute.

YES! THIS WORKS!!!! Thus! Here is my Soy-Free Stir Fry Sauce recipe, it is not exactly the same of course but it is pretty darn close to any old regular stirfry sauce in terms of flavor. We will be having it much more often, Vegemite...who knew!!

The amounts are approximate, since we have only made this once it is still a work in progress, but it is close! just a bit of playing around with these amounts should produce a Soy-Free Sauce worth repeating!

No-Soy StirFry Sauce

Ingredients

2 Tbsp Vegemite

½ c. Water

1 ½ Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

3 Tbsp Rice Vinegar

1 ½ Tbsp Sesame Oil

1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

¼ c. Ginger, finely chopped

Process

-           In a jar put Vegemite, Water, Worcestershire, and Balsamic. Shake well and refrigerate until ready for use

-          When ready to add sauce to Stirfry veggies, add to jar the Rice Vinegar, Sesame Oil,  Apple Cider Vinegar, and Ginger. Shake well and pour over Stirfry!

Notes

You could probably mix everything but the ginger in the jar ahead of time and add the ginger when you cook. But this way works well!

also, the ginger is ESSENTIAL. it with the Vegemite is what makes the sauce taste like a soy-sauce mix

Basil Parmesan African Bread

Going again into the African Cookbook I checked out of the Library, I needed to use a recipe for bread that would go well with my Cool Cucumber Soup. I chose the Basil Parmesan as a complement, and it turned out to work well together.

This bread is fairly dense, and my loaf was perhaps a bit dry, but when used with the soup it gave a nice cheesy and onion accent to the simple flavors. This bread tastes a little like an everything bagel with cheese, my Mom found it was good as toast with a bit of roasted tomato on top, and, if sliced thin enough it is a great grilled cheese bread.

Lastly, though we did not try this, I think it would do really well as a garlic bread with tomato spaghetti. Perhaps not the best on its own due to the slightly dry nature of it (I am not enough of a bread person to know how to fix this yet, I am working on it), it is certainly a good complement to many summery dishes.

Basil and Parmesan Bread

Ingredients

½ c. Milk

2 Tbsp Butter

2 ½ c. Bread Flour

1 envelope (or 2 ½ tsp) active dried Yeast

½ Tbsp Sugar

½ tsp Salt

1 Egg, lightly beaten to break the yolk and blend

1 c. Parmesan Cheese, grated

8 Scallions, sliced

1 tsp crushed Garlic (about 2 cloves)

12-15 Basil leaves

Process

-          Heat the Milk with half the Butter just so the butter melts into the milk, DO NOT BOIL. Set aside to cool lukewarm

-          Combine the Flour, Yeast, Sugar and Salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center

-          Add the lukewarm milk mixture, Egg and Parmesan Cheese to the Flour mix and mix together to make a soft dough. If the dough doesn’t come together enough (is too dry) add splashes of milk as you knead in the bowl until it comes together

-          Knead for a few minutes on a well floured surface until the dough is smooth and elastic

-          Shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl, cover with greased wax paper in a warm dry place and leave to rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size.

-          While the dough is rising, sautee the Scallions and Garlic with the rest of the Butter until the onions are slightly colored. Remove from heat

-          Chop the Basil into small pieces and add to Scallions, allow this to cool.

-          Once dough is risen, punch it, and knead into the Scallion mixture until mix is fully stuck to the dough.

-          Shape into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan covering with the wax paper and leaving to double again (about 30 minutes)

-          Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 35-50 minutes or until crusty and golden on the outside. When tapped it should sound hollow

Cool enough that it sets well and serve either slightly warm right away or wait and serve cold. We had it the next day with a cool cucumber and parsley soup and it was absolutely scrumptious!

            Recipe Source: the African Kitchen by Josie Stow and Jan Baldwin