Friday, January 9, 2015

Roasted Sweet Potato Nachos

Roasted Sweet Potato Nachos

Layers of roasted sweet potatoes seasoned with salsa verde, black beans, salsa and even taco meat if you've got it--all tucked under a blanket of cheese and baked until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips for a tasty vegetable appetizer, another Awesome Veggie App {link to my Pinterest board}.

http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html

It's time for the Game!

In our family, that could mean Ticket To Ride, Sushi Go!, Qwirkle, Timeline or our newest find, Black Fleet (all game links are Amazon affiliate links). Several years ago, after repeated failures attempts we became a family who plays games together.
We don't play Candyland or Monopoly. To be honest, I never found those games particularly enjoyable and thought I just wasn't the type of person who liked to play games. I was wrong. It wasn't me--it was the games we had. If you'd like to have a blast playing games together, read on. If not, jump down to the nachos.
http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html

How did we become a game-playing family? My spouse. His engineer brain took on the task after my efforts failed, and he has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. Over the holidays we had 12 people around the table, 3 generations, ages 14-86, laughing to the point of bladder control issues while playing Telestrations.
Telestrations is a combo of Telephone and Pictionary. Each person gets a drawing pad and a list of words. You read a word, draw a picture to describe the word, then pass your pad to the next person who writes a word based on your drawing. That person passes it to the next, who draws a picture based on the word they see, and so on. We bought 2 games so we'd have enough drawing pads for everyone--it's great for large group.
http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html

The Board Game Family is the blog where my spouse discovered our first successful games. Check them out here. Once you know the style of game that you like to play, you can find new ones yourself. We've had great success with Spiel des Jahres winners, and now enjoy cooperative as well as competitive games each week. It's great fun--yes I'm saying this about sitting around the dining room table playing games with my teens--and good for our mental and emotional health as well.

We don't feed our games, so the table gets cleared off, hands washed, and food put away before the games come out. If you're interested in another sort of game--say, you wanna watch football while eating these nachos--be my guest. They're certainly yummy and would work for that sort of game too.

http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html

For other recipes using sweet potatoes, please see my Sweet Potato Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index for this blog.
Note: the sweet potatoes from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share are all over the place in size when compared to those I see in the grocery store. I'll give you measurements in cups, not number of potatoes. Use the smaller amount if you don't have a lot of sweet potatoes in your Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in a cold corner of the basement.

Another Note: this is a good use of leftover or planned over taco meat. Another good use is Taco Farro. Still another good use is Taco Rice Tortilla Pizza.

http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html

http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html

http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html

Roasted Sweet Potato Nachos

4 to 6 cups cubed peeled sweet potatoes
1 Tablespoon olive oil
⅓ cup salsa verde
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups prepared taco meat (optional)
½ to 1 cup salsa
2 cups shredded Mexican blend or cheddar cheese
to serve: tortilla chips, guacamole, sour cream and more salsa

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, toss sweet potato cubes with oil. Spread onto a rimmed baking sheet and roast until softened. For me, this took about 45 minutes and I stirred the potatoes every 15 minutes. Remove from oven and toss with salsa verde (using the same bowl didn't kill me). Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spread potatoes across the bottom of an oven safe serving dish, or use the same rimmed sheet. Top with beans, taco meat--if desired--dollops plops of salsa (I typed dollops with a straight face but let's be real here, it's plopped on) and shredded cheese. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and everything has been heated through. Serve with chips, guacamole, sour cream and salsa.

http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2015/01/roasted-sweet-potato-nachos.html
Our game area.
This post is linked with What's Cookin' Wednesday

16 comments:

  1. My salsa gets dolloped on. :) I'm not sure dollop can be used as a verb.

    These sweet potato nachos are fantastic. I've already made them and I chopped my spuds up pretty small, and then cooked them at 425 for about 30 to 40 minutes, stirring every 15, and then I put them on broil for 2 minutes to make them all crispy. They were fantastic.

    Try Scattegories. My family loves this game. It's fun for everybody.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meghan,
      Dollop may be used however you like, my friend. I'm intrigued by the idea of broiling them to crispiness. I'm guessing Oscar or your spouse doesn't sidetrack you the minute the broiler comes on? That seems to happen to me. All. the. time.
      I'll add Scattergories to the list--thanks!

      Delete
  2. What a great play on nachos. I imagine this would work layered with the chips as well. Definitely going to try this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Susan,
      I think this would be terrific layered with chips--especially if someone other than me does the layers. I do a good job of topping pizzas, because I get the 'less is more' philosophy, but when it comes to nachos I often end up with soggy chips overloaded with my exuberance with the salsa.

      It's a personal problem.

      Thanks!

      Delete
  3. My daughter just got to Ticket to Ride Europe for Christmas. We love it. I have had Qwirkle on our list for a while. I need to check out the others. We love having family game night and often have nachos with it too

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christie,
      Ticket to Ride Europe was our first TTR! I think the prettiest one is the Nordic Countries--the cards are so Christmassy--though it's only for 3 players so it's the TTR we play when someone is away from home.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  4. My sweet potatoes from my CSA are all over the place too. They are usually in some weird corkscrew type shape!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pam,
      I'm glad to know other CSAs have . . . interestingly shaped veggies! I've been really impressed with my farmers. When we first moved here, soon after they'd started, their soil was so poor that the carrots were stunted and twisted. Sweet, but teeny. I called them 'carrot pants'.
      However, over the past few years that our farmers have been amending the soil, the carrots have grown long and super fat--while still being very sweet. It's a very visible example of the soil becoming better and better.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  5. I'm not much for games, but I do love nachos. I have a few sweet potatoes too, so this recipe is perfect for movie night tomorrow.

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    Replies
    1. Laura,
      If we didn't have pizza with our movie nights (because, hello, Friday Night Movie Night meets Friday Night Pizza Night around here) nachos would be the way I'd go as well.
      Thanks!

      Delete
  6. Love it! This will make a perfect easy dinner for tonight. I'm a huge fan of nachos and sweet potatoes so it's like a double bonus!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lucy,
      This is a pretty easy dinner. I need to get into the habit of roasting a whole bunch of veggies so I've got leftover roasted veggies on hand for . . . . whatever!

      Thanks!

      Delete
  7. We're not a board game family either, but I'm intrigued by your description of Telestrations. I will admit though, that I'm even more intrigued by the sweet potato nachos :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Laura,
      Telestrations is so. much. fun. When there's 70+ years age difference and not all players are native English speakers--and the game is STILL a hoot, you know it's a winner!
      Thanks!

      Delete
  8. Kirsten, Telestrations sounds like so much fun! I recognize several of the games from your cabinet in our own repetoire -- because we too also discovered a whole new world of gaming this past year. Catan Junior, Karma and Forbidden Desert were among our favorites.

    These nachos look divine!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah,
      You've played Catan Junior--have you seen Mary Poppins? Somehow, whenever we play Catan Junior, my daughter and I end up in places that get a lot of goats. So, paraphrasing the mom in Mary Poppins, we shout "Goats for Women!" each time. It's what I think of when I think Catan Junior.
      I'll have to check out Forbidden Desert--that sounds neat.
      Thanks!

      Delete