Meatless Monday: Claire’s Moroccan Sweet Potatoes

Claire’s Moroccan Sweet Potatoes has been a favorite in our house for longer than there have been “Meatless Mondays.” We first enjoyed it at my cousin’s house during her New Haven years. She lives in Denmark now, but I think of her every time I make it.

Moroccan Sweet Potatoes is Claire Criscuolo’s  unique vegetarian take on a traditional Moroccan meat dish. In Claire’s version, chickpeas and walnuts supply the protein, making it a complete meal and a perfect Meatless Monday dish. It is also excellent when served on a grain — a good way to stretch the dish when serving a crowd.

Moroccan Sweet Potatoes 

Preheat your oven to 400°F

INGREDIENTS

6 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, and cut into 1-inch cubes

3 medium carrots, peeled, and cut on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices

1 large yellow onion, peeled, and sliced into 1/4-inch rings

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup golden raisins

Salt and black pepper to taste

1/3 cup of water

One 16-ounce can chickpeas, drained.

1/4 chopped walnuts

• In a large bowl, combine the vegetables, oil, cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla, raisins, and salt and pepper. Toss well.
• Pour the water into a 9’ x 13” glass baking dish.
• Turn the sweet potato mixture into the dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
• Bake for one hour.
• Remove the foil and stir in the chickpeas and walnuts. 
• Continue cooking, uncovered, for 10 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender.

This delicious dish takes a bit longer to prepare than last week’s tofu stir fry, but it is worth the time and effort. This one-dish meal is excellent when heated as a leftover, if you should be so lucky.

Moroccan Sweet Potatoes is one of many delicious recipes in Claire’s Corner Copia Cookbook.Published in 1994, it is New Haven restaurateur Claire Criscuolo’s  first (and still my favorite) collection of recipes. If you can get your hands on a copy, check out Claire’s photo on the back cover. Such a kid! But I guess we all were back then. We  love you, Claire — always have, always will! 

Have a great week.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”