I went to a dinner party once and the hostess, who was a very sweet peach from Georgia, served up all the glorious food, buffet style. I mean, there was everything your sweet little heart could desire for supper. One of the platters on the table was filled with twice baked sweet potatoes stuffed with nuts, marshmallows and maple syrup. Then, next to the potatoes was a dish filled with wild rice and cranberries.
Now, don’t tell the hostess, but when I bit into them twice-baked sweet potatoes, honey, they was so sweet that my poor, little molars was set on edge! So, I was happy to have that wild rice to calm down my hyper, twingin’ teeth! However, as I sat there really enjoying the wild rice, I began to think, “Hmmm. I wonder how this would taste if I stuffed me some baked sweet potato with a little of this here wild rice. Yeah…maybe add a little dried cranberries and somethin’ crunchy, like pumpkin seeds or walnuts?”
So, thanks to my way too sweet Georgia peach of a hostess… and a few experiments later, that’s how this here recipe you’re readin’ about came to be. By the way, this recipe is also good with Stuffed Roasted Butternut Squash.
It looks really festive on your holiday plate or buffet, and this is also a great dish for all them non-Christmas Goose-eatin’ vegetarian friends!
Roasted Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Dried Cranberries and Pepitas
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: Southern
Serves: 8
PREP TIME
15 mins
COOK TIME
1 hour 45 mins
TOTAL TIME
2 hours
INGREDIENTS
8 fresh sweet potatoes
2 cups wild rice
4 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 small white onion (finely chopped)
½ cup dried cranberries
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
⅓ cup fresh parsley (finely chopped) optional
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat your oven to 400°.
Scrub your fresh whole sweet potatoes and lightly pierce each potato 4-5 times with a sharp knife. Then, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place them whole sweet potatoes on the baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes ‘til done. (While the potatoes are baking, we’ll make the wild rice stuffing.)
Git yourself a big 2 or 3 quart pot and melt the butter with the oil over a medium heat.
Once it starts to bubble, add the chopped onions and sauté ‘til translucent.
Then, add the wild rice and stir it into the butter-onion mix for about 3 minutes until the rice is well coated.
Once the rice is coated, add the chicken stock, cranberries, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper and bring it to a boil.
Now, turn it down to a simmer, cover with a lid, and cook the rice for around 45-50 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. There will still be a little crunch to the rice but it will not be hard.
Once the rice is done, mix the pepitas into the cooked rice.
Now, take your hot sweet potatoes, cut them in half, loosen a little bit of the pulp with a fork and place a pat of butter into the cut, hot potato.
As the butter is melting, scoop the wild rice with cranberries into the open baked sweet potato. And serve it up hot! YUM! Enjoy!