twice-baked yams
even though it’s still hot in LA, we are halfway through september and i’m already thinking about autumn foods. my favorite are yams, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin.
i wanted to do something that really accented the yam in all of it’s glory, i wasn’t even interested in adding other vegetables. just a few herbs and you can enjoy these tasty little tubers in all their sweet, creamy, toasty glory.
twice-baked yams
3 small yams
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp earth balance
since they are twice baked it’s probably no surprise that you have to start off by baking them once. you can do that ahead of time or right before you stuff them.
bake them in a covered pan at 400F for 45 minutes. just a little bit of water at the bottom of the pan helps them stay moist while they cook. you know they are done because they will be nice and soft when you poke them with a fork.
once they are cool enough to handle, cut down the middle and spoon out the inside into a large bowl.
place the skins on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
in the bowl add the herbs, salt and butter substitute. mash with a fork until even and creamy. because i ended up using a piping bag to fill the potatoes, i found it difficult to get the mixture through the tip when the rosemary is too chunky. i would suggest chopping or food processing your herbs into smaller bits.
then you could spoon the mashed potatoes directly into the skins, or for an nice touch spoon it into a piping bag and make swirly little peaks that will get crispy when baked.
bake for 25 minutes at 400F or until they are crispy and starting to brown.
let cool a few minutes before you serve them. the beautiful presentation of these little individual treats make them perfect for entertaining.
These are absolutely beautiful and the recipe is mouth-watering! However, I would like to point out that what you call “yams” here are actually sweet potatoes. If your readers accidentally purchased yams instead of sweet potatoes, this dish would probably not taste half as delicious because true yams are far more starchy and less sweet than sweet potatoes. You can tell the difference in the grocery store because yams are large and have white or yellow flesh, like russet potatoes, while sweet potatoes are smaller and have an orangey tone.
thanks for your comment april. this has come up before, but i call them yams rather than sweet potatoes because that is what the farmers that grow them call them. perhaps there are different varieties, but the ones i used are called yams.