Roasted Curried-Vanilla Sweet Potatoes

Author Notes: If you’re looking for a new twist on sweet potatoes, you owe it to yourself to give this a try. It was a real eye opener to me. I had always been one to kind of sneer at savory uses of vanilla, thinking it best to leave well enough alone and let vanilla work its magic in sweets. But after stumbling across a recipe for Curried Duck with Vanilla in the Washington Post from Andreas Viestad, who noted that "when the sweet flavors of vanilla interact with curry powder, both ingredients are transformed,” I was wholly intrigued. As much as I love duck, I decided to take a much simpler approach and try out this flavor combination with roasted sweet potatoes and shallots. I’m a sucker for sweet potatoes this time of year, and I thought they’d play well with the sweet-spicy notes of the vanilla and curry. To round out the flavors, I tossed the sweet potatoes with nutty browned butter and fresh thyme. The smell of them roasting was intoxicating, and the taste even more so. The flavors are familiar yet exotic -- quietly comforting yet attention grabbing. I’ll be making this dish a lot this holiday season -- and needless to say, I’m happy to have been proven so wrong about vanilla. For a simple variation, throw in a few handfuls of spinach before serving, letting the residual heat wilt the leaves. - EmilyC

Food52 Review: Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that vanilla and curry would be such a lovely pair. EmilyC has created a magical combination -- the aroma when the curry, vanilla, and thyme hit the browned butter is so good it could be marketed. The flavors complement the natural sugars in the roasted sweet potatoes without entering into saccharine territory. I served it once with roast chicken and once with pork -- yes, I've made it twice already! If you are a fan of sweet potatoes this dish definitely deserves a spot on your table. - hardlikearmour

Serves 2

• This recipe is a Community Pick!
• This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Recipe with Vanilla