Citrus Mashed Sweet Potato

I do not like sweet potato.

There, I said it. I don't like the earthier taste, and the sweetness of it is always a little off, to me. So you can guess how excited I was to come up with a way to make it palatable. And it's super, super easy, and not too expensive, either.

Citrus Mashed Sweet Potato

Mashed sweet potato used in a Shepherd's pie 

Ingredients:
sweet potatoes
fresh oranges or lemons

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Wash the sweet potatoes and pierce a few times with a fork, then put them on a cookie sheet and cook for 40-60 minutes, or until fully cooked (you want them nice and soft).

3. Juice your citrus. You want about 4 Tb. of juice for every large sweet potato. Take the juice and boil it down to about 1/2 the original volume (so now you'll have 2 Tb. for every large sweet potato). You're essentially making lemon or orange concentrate. You have to use fresh citrus juice for this. Pre-made citrus juice contains substances that are nasty and bitter if you try to concentrate it.

4. Let the sweet potatoes cool enough to peel them, and then mash up the sweet potato flesh in a bowl. Add the concentrated citrus juice and mix thoroughly and that's it. You're done.

5. The result is a very tangy sweet flavor, which can be altered by varying amounts of the juice, according to taste. It makes a nice, bright side dish, mush less heavy tasting that sweet potato usually is.


Notes:
- A stronger orange flavor can be had by adding finely grated orange rind.
- I have also made this into a pie for Thanksgiving before. Simply line the bottom of a pie pan with thinly sliced apples and top with a lot of the sweet potato mixture, and bake it at 375 F (with the top covered in tinfoil until the last 15 minutes) until the apples are cooked. For a sweeter pie, you can add honey along with the citrus juice.
- You can also try this as a topping for other dishes, like I did in the picture above, making a lighter flavored Shepher'd pie.