Improv Cooking Challenge-5-Spice and Honey Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Today is the third Thursday in November and time for Improve Cooking Challenge hosted by Kristen at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker, so this is post number two.

The ingredients for the challenge this month were sweet potatoes and honey.  Sweet potatoes are one of those things that there is some confusion about.  Here in the northwest yellow fleshed sweet potatoes are called sweet potatoes, and orange fleshed ones are called yams but are, supposedly, actually a variety of sweet potato.  Confusing, I know.  Anyway, I chose to make my recipe with the orange fleshed potato as that is the one my family likes.

In searching the web for inspiration for this ingredient combination, I found a short video by Tyler Florence where he was making what he called sweet potatoes (they were the orange ones) roasted with honey and cinnamon.  The video was my inspiration for this recipe.  There were no ingredient amounts or oven temperature given in the video.

I love Chinese 5-Spice seasoning with its slightly licorice undertones so chose to use that in this recipe.  I will be trying other spices such as Pumpkin Pie Spice, Apple Pie Spice, Nutmeg, and Ginger (I probably will need to reduce the amount of spice for this one.).  5-Spice can be a little difficult to find in the grocery store, but I know that Spice Islands still makes it.

Although I used whole pecans in the dish I made for the photo, in the future I will use coarsely chopped nuts.  Any other nut of choice could also be used, or the nuts may be omitted.

All in all, I am very pleased with the result and have a recipe that I will use often.  The not-too-sweet glaze really lets the flavor of the sweet potato shine through.  Personally, I just kept eating these like popcorn and could not stop.  If you like true sweet potato flavor, I think you will like this.

5-Spice and Honey Glazed Sweet Potatoes
2 1/2-3 lbs. sweet potatoes or yams
1 1/2 T. olive oil or melted butter
1/3 c. honey
1 t. 5-Spice seasoning
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. coarsely ground pepper
1/2 to 3/4 c. coarsely chopped, toasted pecans or other nuts (opt.)

Peel and slice potatoes into 1-inch slices.  Quarter slices.  Place sweet potatoes in a large mixing bowl.  Drizzle olive oil or melted butter over the potatoes and mix until they are well covered.  Pour honey into a glass measuring cup and warm in microwave about 30 seconds.   Add 5-Spice, salt and pepper to the honey and stir well.  Pour honey over the sweet potatoes and mix until they are well covered.  Turn into a foil-lined 10-15-inch baking sheet and spread into a single layer.  Bake at 375 degrees 15 minutes.  Carefully stir and turn sweet potatoes so that they are well coated with the liquid (honey will still be quit liquid at this point).  Return to oven and bake about 15 minutes more.  Stir and turn potatoes again until they are well coated with glaze (honey will be glaze consistency at this point).  Sprinkle nuts over potatoes and return to oven for about 10 minutes until potatoes are tender.  Remove from oven and place in a serving dish.  Makes 6 to 8 servings  (Unless you are me, then it make a serving for one.)

 If you like to join in the fun of this challenge, you can find all the necessary information on Kristen's Improv Page.  December's challenge is chocolate and marshmallows.  The recipe does not have to be original.