The CuisiNerd

Got this one from Margit and modified slightly, as I was making some for my friend Blaine who is on a very restricted diet at the moment as he battles a brain tumor. The diet is very rich in fresh vegetables, and this salad is a great fit (and tasty too!)

Take about 3 lbs of sweet potatoes (or just one, see my previous post) and cut into approximately 3/4″ cubes. Plop them in a large pot of boiling water and boil until tender but firm (8 minutes was a little too long and they ended up a little soft). Drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside to cool for a while (in the fridge if you have room).

Slice two or three sweet peppers of various colors (1 red, one purple in this case) and one purple onion into thin strips and chop a handful of basil as finely as you can (but don’t go overboard!)

Make a dressing consisting of 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh garlic. Add 1/2 tablespoon honey (raw if you can get it) or a comparable amount of stevia and shake well. The original recipe for this calls for tossing it with a french-type dressing. I’m rather partial to Annie’s Naturals Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette (which is good on all kinds of things), but had to get creative this go around since Blaine’s food plan specifically says no canola oil.

Add the chopped stuff to the cubed sweet potatoes and toss with the dressing. Let it mellow for a little while in the fridge, and then enjoy with a friend or several.

Update: Sadly, Blaine lost his battle with cancer shortly before Thanksgiving of 2007. He is deeply missed by all who knew him.

We went out to my dad’s place yesterday for some food and family while my grandmother was in town. Yummy buffalo burgers and salmon burgers. We came home with a bag of these:

Yes, that’s a foot-long, three-pound sweet potato, and not a prop from a gastroenterology lecture. (that’s what y’all in the South would call a “big-ass yam”)

My dad grew a 25-foot experimental plot for possible commercial production. He got 80 lbs from that little bed, these were some of the larger ones. He sent us home with 10 lbs of them, which worked out to 4 potatotes. My dad tells me this works out to about a 30,000 lb/acre yield.

Margit made some yummy sweet potato salad (and I’ll share the recipe as soon as it’s declassified)

We also got to pick raspberries:

Most of them ended up inside her belly.

And, a gratuitously cute picture: