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

Test Kitchen Notes

Headnote: This recipe has forever changed the way I think of vanilla. Its comforting mellow sweetness combined with the nutty brown butter to tame the curry just enough. This dish perfectly walks the line between fiery spice and sticky caramelization. When I tossed the remaining cubes in a kale salad the next day, they just won my heart all over again. Comments: A winner recipe for sure! The brown butter doesn't power through as a flavor, but I think it adds a lot to the background complexity. —chez_mere