I made this recipe for Thanksgiving and it was so delicious. Often people get carried away with really sweet sides when making a turkey dinner ie. Candied Yams, Maple Glazed Squash so on and so forth. I actually had a turkey dinner this year that felt like I was eating dessert. Don't get me wrong; I love those sides, I love sweet stuff; but I think that when you are hosting a big dinner you need to be mindful of creating a balance. So I took a cue from that dinner and made sure to keep my dinner in check. Just enough sweet and just enough savory; especially with a rich meal like this where people often go back for seconds and generally eat way more then a regular meal.
And really isn't that when you know you've done a good job? When you look around and see all of those full faces, you know the ones, not really comfortable anymore because you had to eat that last bite - and then a little more.
This side I loved because it was so balanced. Yams and Beets are quite sweet on their own and with a couple of brushes of a Honey Lime vinaigrette they were transformed from regular vegetables to 'super hero' veggies out to add color and taste to your holiday table!
Alright before I get carried away here is the recipe:
2 large yams
4 medium beets
Juice of 2 limes
1 good squeeze of honey - about 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
salt & pepper
Begin with the Veggies, ideally you will want to boil the yams until tender in salted water and boil the beets until tender in unsalted water. I did do this when I made the recipe for a crowd because I needed to do two big pots of each, and because I did a lot of the prep the day before. Which is a great tip when making a large dinner: Do as much as you can the day or days before, this means that there will be less stress the day of and you will be able to socialize with your gusts. When I made them at home though for just the two of us I just threw then all in regular water and boiled until tender. Set aside to cool. Whenever you feel like it; you can mix up the glaze, which really is just a regular old vinaigrette, juice the lime, add the honey and mustard, a little salt & pep and drizzle in the olive oil. Taste and season to your liking.
This is so easy, and makes a great salad dressing. It would probably even be good on chicken, or fish. I'll have to try that.
I like to make this as long before I use it as I can. If that's only a few minutes, good, if I do it while the veggies are boiling and it ends up being more like 20 - 30 minutes, even better. The longer that it gets to hang out the more the flavors mingle and become one.
Once the veggies have cooled; you can peel the skins off; I left them on because I'm just that kind of girl. Then slice them into 1 - 2 cm rounds and arrange them on a baking sheet. I like to arrange them in stripes, purple - orange, purple - orange and so one. Brush them with the glaze and pop the whole thing into a 350 degree oven until they have soaked in the glaze and get a little caramelized. I like to glaze them once or twice before taking them out.
That's it. The great thing to is that they truly are beautiful and colorful. The contrasting colors; taste and texture are sure to liven up any table.
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