Holiday feasts can be a rich affair, but potatoes, especially the sweet version on Thanksgiving are an essential. This lighter version of a gratin, minus the cream, butter, cheese or béchamel sauce, but with all the colour and beauty of the season is a welcome addition to a feast and a perfect vehicle for the festive trimmings (cranberry sauce springs to mind here).
It takes only a few minutes to assemble, and it can be baked the day before when things are a little quieter and reheated before serving if you are short on oven space on the day. Feel free to use a mixture of sweet potato and yukon gold or maris piper potatoes or pepper in some parsnip rounds to shake things up a little, but the simplicity here works for me.
Don’t just save these for a party, these are a great side for any time. Feel free to scale the recipe quantity down if you are not making these for a party, but know the leftovers are fantastic in a salad or a soup or stew the next day. Leftovers for life.
Sweet Potato Tian
6
servings20
minutes1
hour15
minutesSimple enough for a weeknight dinner and pretty enough for a feast, these sweet potatoes are the new holiday essential.
Ingredients
1.2 kg (2.5 lbs) sweet potatoes
2-3 banana shallots (approx 150g / 5oz)
2 tbsp olive oil, divided, plus more for the dish
2 tbsp olive oil, divided, plus more for the dish
3-4 sage sprigs (depending on the size of the leaves)
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp Aleppo pepper or 1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp Malden salt (plus more at the end of cooking)
a few cracks of black pepper
1/2 tbsp maple syrup (optional but I love it for the holidays)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF)
- Thinly slice the sweet potatoes into thin rounds, approximately 3mm (1/8 inch) thick. I like to do this on a mandolin and place in a large bowl with the vinegar/lemon juice to stop the potatoes oxidising. Try to find similar size potatoes here if you can, but you can always use the smaller ends to fill in the gaps.
- Slice the shallots into similar thickness rounds and add to the bowl. Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, separate the sage leaves from the sprigs and add to the bowl with the spices, salt and pepper. Mix together thoroughly (I like to use my hands) to make sure each potato round is kissed with the oil and seasoning. Use your judgement here, you may want to add a trickle more olive oil.
- Wipe the bottom of your baking dish (either 22cm ish round or oblong equivalent) with 1 tsp olive oil to stop anything sticking.
- Start to stack your rounds of sweet potato in circles or columns (depending whether you use round or rectangular dish), adding in the shallots and sage leaves intermittently in between and tucking the smaller rounds in to fill any gaps. I like to keep them at a slight angle and not completely upright to leave extra space for crispy tips.
- When your dish is fully stacked, cover tightly with foil and place in the oven for 45minutes. Uncover and drizzle with the remaining tbsp olive oil and maple syrup if you are using and pop back into the oven, uncovered for another 30 minutes until golden and crisp on top.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.
Notes
- I like a ceramic dish best for these sweet potatoes.
- If you don’t have a mandolin, you can slice them by hand but try to keep the rounds as similar in size as possible.
- You can make these the day ahead, allow to cool, keep covered in the fridge. Reheat from room temperature, uncovered at 180ºC (350ºF) for about 30 minutes.
Have you made this dish?
Let me know what you think, share your efforts and any tweaks you made to the recipe on Instagram, don’t forget to tag #BuildingFeasts or email me on info@buildingfeasts.com
