Baking and sweet potatoes join forces with cayenne pepper for a lively side. Recipe below.

First things first. I’m doing two postings today—so after you read about this easy, tasty side dish, be sure to check out the cool tool I found at Ikea.

This roasted potato dish is roughly based on one I found on epicurious.com. That recipe used only sweet potatoes. As you can see from the photo, I used both sweet potatoes and baking potatoes. I started doing this because one of my daughters, the antithesis of picky eater by just about any measure, for some reason doesn’t like sweet potatoes. Now I use both because I think the dish looks and tastes more interesting with both. You can use just sweet potatoes or just baking potatoes, if you like.

I like these roasted potatoes for a few reasons. First, when I’m jonesing for some french fries, these will kind of satisfy that craving without all the frying evils. That said, I do indulge my fries desires on occasion, but only on occasion. As Oscar Wilde said, “All things in moderation, including moderation.”

Second, the kick of a little cayenne pepper and the mixing of sweet and baking potatoes actually makes them more interesting than fries, I think. More versatile too. You can pair them with burgers, roast chicken, salmon… or pan seared, bone-in pork chops, as I did the other night.

And finally, after a few minutes of simple prep work up front, you’ve got about a half hour to pull together the rest of the meal while the potatoes roast. Continue reading “A little something on the side: Simple, Spicy Roasted Potatoes” →