Recession Busting Recipes: Grilled Sweet Potato with Carrot-Onion Salad

Recession Busting Tip #1: Keep the Ingredients to A Minimum.

When I first started cooking, it was really easy to be suckered into thinking the more ingredients a recipe involved, the better the result.

But lately, I've been obsessed with main dishes that focus on one ingredient. Not only do you get to take full advantage of the full flavor of the star vegetable, you don't end up with ingredients rotting in the fridge because you need a handful of this, a teaspoon of that.

Now that I have a basic, inexpensive spice collection, it's never been easier to whip up simple and tasty dishes.

Today's feature is the ever-delightful sweet potato. Now this vegetable is tasty no matter what you do to it: grill it, roast it, stir fry it, fry it, caramelize it, dance on it, and so on and so forth (maybe not the last one, but hey).

The main thing you need to be mindful of when cooking with the sweet potato is balancing out the sweetness. (I may be Texan, but that Thanksgiving concoction with sugar and marshmallow and pureed sweet potato is a crime against humanity. BLECH!)

(this, altogether, SERVES 2)

GRILLED SWEET POTATO WITH CARROT-ONION SALAD

Sweet potato ingredients:

• 150 gm. sweet potato, basically one large sweet potato, peeled and sliced into approximately 1/4 inch slices
• 2 tbsp. yogurt
• 1 tbsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. red chilli powder (more if you like it spicy)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced finely
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger, minced finely
• 1 spoon of olive oil
• salt to taste (1/2 tsp is usually about right)

Instructions:

• Mix all ingredients apart from sweet potato in a bowl. If you don't have yogurt, use sour cream.
• Add in sweet potato and let marinade soak in for about an hour.
• Now here's where things become optional. You can shallow fry the marinated pieces for a more intense flavor, but the healthier option is to grill/broil them. Either way, flip after about 5 minutes and cook both sides until dark brown.

Salad Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, grated
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• Juice of 1/2 lime or lemon
• 1 minced green chili
• 1 tsp. salt.
• IF IT'S ON HAND: a bit of chopped cilantro
• OPTIONAL: handful of peanuts

Instructions:

• Mix it all together. For those of you who are afraid of raw onions, the lime/lemon juice softens the bite and takes away the edge.

That's all! Serve the grilled sweet potatoes with salad on the side and enjoy!