Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges with Yogurt Sauce, Pomegranate and Hazelnuts

Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges with Yogurt Sauce, Pomegranate Seeds, and Chopped Hazelnuts

Inspired by multiple recipes from Jerusalem and Plenty.

The vegetables:

1 large sweet potato

1/2 medium red onion

2 large or 4 medium garlic cloves

1 Tbsp olive oil

Coarse Sea Salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

The sauce

1/2 cup whole fat plain yogurt

Zest and juice of 1 lime

1 tsp garlic paste (or 1 large crushed clove garlic, remove later)

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 Tbsp roasted sesame tahini

Toppings

1 pomegranate, seeded

1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped.

If you can, whisk together the sauce ingredients and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit.

Scrub, but don’t peel the sweet potato.  Cut in half, then in half again, and then again until you have 8 wedges.  Place in a large bowl.

Cut a medium red onion in half, then pull off the peel but don’t cut off the root end.  This will help keep the wedges together. Cut the half onion in half, then in half again to get four wedges.

Leave the peels on the garlic cloves.  If they are large cloves, cut them in half.

Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables in the bowl, and add a few grinds of the sea salt and pepper, then toss the vegetables gently so the onion wedges stay together and the potato wedges don’t break.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, then place the vegetables on the sheet.  Roast 15-20 minutes and turn the vegetables with tongs and roast another 15-20 minutes more.  Test the tenderness of the potatoes with a fork, and if necessary, turn and roast some more.  You want them to be tender, but not falling apart.

Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium heat, and add the hazelnuts.  Stir regularly and pay attention as they burn pretty quickly.  It will probably be around 10 minutes.  Judge it by smell.  When you start to smell that wonderful roasted nut smell, remove from the heat.

Pour them out onto a clean dish cloth, and rub briskly with the cloth to remove the skins.  Chop the nuts and set aside.

After you remove the vegetables from the oven, take one of the garlic cloves and squeeze out the roasted garlic into the sauce.  Whisk together and taste.  Add more roasted garlic if you like–do it by taste.

Arrange the wedges of sweet potato and onion on a serving plate, dollop the sauce over, and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and chopped hazelnuts.