How not to make Sweet Potato Cakes from ‘Plenty’

On Friday night, I stopped by Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe on my way home. Because I have a long pile of books at home on my to read list, I browsed through the cook books instead and was quickly drawn to Yotam Ottolenghi’s ‘Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes’ cookbook. I’ve read glowing reviews on his cook book and love the innovative vegetarian dishes presented in his weekly column in The Guardian.

I had sweet potatoes, cilantro, green onions, and chile left over from the Sweet Potato Chile Mac I’d made and came across Ottolenghi’s Sweet Potato Cakes recipe that incorporated these ingredients  as well as a few other basic ones that I already had on hand. I was really excited to try this dish out, unfortunately, I didn’t read the recipe close enough and ended up mixing what was supposed to be the sauce in to the sweet potato mixture that is fried. The flavor of the cakes was still amazing but the texture was a bit moist because of the wet ingredients and it was difficult to cook them all the way through. I ended up serving them with salad as a main course, but done correctly these would make a great appetizer.

Sweet Potato Chile Mac

I spent the three day weekend in Santa Cruz, CA. It was a relaxing getaway filled with family, great food, and catch up time with a good friend. Friday was a blur as I rushed to finish work and make it to the airport on time. The work day turned out to be much busier than I was anticipating and Super Shuttle was early for my pick-up the one day I was hoping they’d be running late.

By the time I made it on to the plane I was tired and hungry (to the point of purchasing a United Airlines snack pack for the first and last time).  I had managed to grab the latest issue of Cooking Light before boarding and earmarked at least ten new recipes to try (I don’ t know whether or not reading about food while hungry is a good idea!). This particular issue focuses on “comfort classics” and is filled with classic comfort food recipes – many with a twist – prepared healthfully. I secretly love mac and cheese and the sweet potato chile version combines several of my favorite flavors and foods in to one delicious dish. The final dish came out sweet, spicy, creamy, and very filling.