Sweet potato mole with a bit of sausage.

Recently there've been a slew of cookbooks out with the "light on the meat" theme:  recipes that work with or without meat, or with a smaller amount of it.   This meshes pretty well with our family's recent culinary history, at least before my pregnancy, and since that's not going to last forever I decided to start thinking about getting back on track with that again.  I checked a bunch of cookbooks out of the library this week, hoping to find a new gem. 

Tonight I made a variation on Sweet Potato Chorizo Mole, from Almost Meatless by Manning and Mataraza-Desmond.  It was really good, and low in common allergens to boot (no gluten or eggs; there is cheese, but I honestly thought it would be pretty good even without the cheese, or with a substitute.)  I divided  the casserole in half, one for the table and one for the freezer, another habit I need to get back into after the baby.  Worked fine, maybe because two of three kids wouldn't eat it.  Too bad, the grownups loved it, and we will see it on our table again.

Here's my version (full casserole size in a 9x13 pan)

• 3-4 oz bulk pork sausage (recipe called for chorizo which I didn't have)
• 1 very small onion, diced small
• 1 small minced chipotle in adobo sauce (compensating for lack of chorizo)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (recipe called for 2, still compensating for lack of chorizo)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 - 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes, juices strained and reserved, tomatoes chopped coarsely
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 Tbsp chile powder
• 1 ounce Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips (a kitchen staple!)
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 fifteen ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2/3 c water
• 2 orange sweet potatoes, 1 and 1/2 lbs total, sliced into 1/8" disks
• Several handfuls shredded mild cheddar cheese (recipe calls for 8 oz)
• Cilantro for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 F and spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

Crumble the sausage into a skillet (add oil if necessary) and brown with the onion, 5-7 min.  Add garlic and oregano and chipotle pepper and cook a bit longer.  Deglaze pan with tomato juice.  Add tomatoes, cumin, chile powder, chocolate, corn, and beans.  Simmer and stir 10 min.  Add water.  Taste and correct seasoning with salt and black pepper.  There's your sauce.

In the casserole, layer 1/3 of the sweet potatoes, half the sauce, and a third of the cheese.  Repeat layers, ending with remaining sweet potatoes.  Reserve last third of the cheese.  Cover tightly with foil (pressing foil down on top of sweet potatoes) and bake 1 and 1/2 hours until sweet potatoes are tender.  Remove foil and top with cheese; bake uncovered for 10 min.  Remove from oven and let rest 10 min before serving, sprinkled with chopped cilantro.

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We had this with a simple green salad.  I think it tasted great, sweet and spicy both, and it could also have been served (with extra water or broth) as a stew or chili, the sweet potatoes diced and simmered in the sauce base and the cheese passed at the table as a topping.  Maybe a good crock-pot type meal.

Comments

[Lisa]

I'm a recent visitor to your blog, after Arwen linked the other day. I'm making this right now -- it intrigued me and goes in line with the kind of food we eat a lot in my house. I used andouille sausage, we'll see how that works out -- the sauce tasted pretty spicy but I think that will contrast well with the sweetness of the potatoes. Thanks for sharing!

PS -- those Ghiardelli 60% cacao chips -- amazing! I guarantee they won't last more than a week in my house, I will probably be snacking on them regularly!

[bearing]

Let me know how it was!

re: the Ghirardelli chocolate chips, this is the main form of chocolate kept in our house for snacking purposes as well as for cooking and baking.

1 lb 60% Ghirardelli chocolate chips $4.90
1 lb 60% Ghirardelli chocolate bar $9.60

The chips have to compete with Nestle Tollhouse brand chips... that's my theory.

[Lisa]

Wanted to update, it came out so well! I garnished with avocado in addition to the cilantro and both me and my husband loved it, I'll definitely be making this again!