Today we’d like to share a recipe for sweet potatoes with apple chutney and pomegranate garnish. It makes a great, peppy breakfast, and (provided you make your chutney ahead of time) is a quick, healthy meal choice.
Ingredients:
- Sweet Potatoes (one for each person being served.)
For Apple Chutney: (Based on the original recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/apple-chutney-recipe/index.html )
- 6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and half-inch diced
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 2 tablespoons powdered ginger
- 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (2 oranges)
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon whole dried mustard seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 cup golden raisins
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate arils (optional)
I like to garnish this dish with pomegranate arils (the fruity sac surrounding the edible white seeds) but many people don’t enjoy the crunchy texture this adds. If you want to try pomegranate arils, we provide instructions for opening a pomegranate with minimal mess, or you can buy the arils already separated.
Tools:
- A knife
- An apple corer/peeler
- a citrus juicer
- a food processor
- a microwave
Start by preparing the chutney:
Directions:
Core and peel the apples, then chop them into half inch chunks and set aside.
Next, get your oranges ready to juice.
Cut them in half and press them firmly into your citrus juicer. Two oranges will make roughly one cup.
Now for the onion, take it and slice it into quarter chunks or smaller.
Take those chunks and insert them into a food processor. You can chop them by hand, but that can really irritate your eyes
Now that you’ve gotten the hard part out of the way, combine all ingredients except for the raisins and pomegranate arils into a large pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring only occasionally. Reduce the heat to simmer and continue cooking, stirring now and again, for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Take off the heat and add the raisins.
Now for the pomegranates. If you bought separated arils, or just aren’t wild about pomegranate, you can skip these steps.
To deseed a pomegranate, cut the very top top of the tufted side off to make the membrane separations visible.
Score the pomegranate from the outside along the sections seperated by white membrane bands. Do not cut all the way through. There is very little fruit in a pomegranate and this technique allows you to preserve as much as possible.
Gently pull these sections apart. Now you are ready for deseeding.
Fill a large bowl with water, place a section of pomegranate in the water and gently pull the arils free.
The fruity arils will sink to the bottom and most of the membrane should float to the top. You can scoop it off by hand.
Pour off the water into a colander and separate out any membrane you missed.
Now for the potatoes. Take one medium sized potato and microwave it for 8-10 minutes. We use pre-wrapped potatoes, but you can use the unwrapped variety too, just make sure to puncture them with a fork a few times to keep the potato from rupturing. Larger potatoes may take longer to soften up an cook properly.
When the potato is finished, slit it lengthwise and scoop out two tablespoons of chutney on to it.
Sprinkle pomegranate arils over the top if desired and enjoy. The chutney keeps for quite a while if refrigerated and covered, so you can reuse it for this or try it out on any other dish.
