Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Fresh Figs

I love to revisit cookbooks every few months.

I recently leafed thru Yotam Ottolenghi's JERUSALEM. I hadn't cooked from this book in a while.

Just when I thought I had made everything in the book, I came across this recipe for roasted sweet potatoes and figs.

Perfect timing.

Every few days I have a few ripe figs to pick from my potted tree.
Lucky me.

The original recipe wants you to slice chiles, which I never have on hand, so I used hot pepper chile flakes instead.
The results were great.

I omitted the goat cheese and added plain Greek yogurt to mellow out the sizzling green onion and chili oil.

This was fantastic! Perfect for fall.
And you know how much I love sweet potatoes and figs! The perfect pairing!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Fresh Figs (adapted from Jerusalem & the NYT):

4 small sweet potatoes, sliced into wedges
5 tablespoons olive oil
scant 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (or balsamic syrup)
12 green onions (scallions), sliced thin (green parts only)
1 red chili, thinly sliced or dried hot pepper flakes
6 ripe figs, quartered
5 ounces soft goat’s milk cheese (optional, I used plain Greek yogurt instead)
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.

Lay out the sweet potato wedges on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 20 minutes, turning 1 time to brown both sides.

In the meantime, heat the scallions in 3 tbsp of olive oil with the chili flakes for exactly 5 minutes, until sizzling.

When the sweet potatoes are done, pour the scallion chile oil over the wedges on a platter.
Drizzle with balsamic syrup and place the fresh ripe figs around them.

Dab with the cheese or yogurt and serve.
Delicious warm or at room temperature.

This would be a perfect dish to serve on Rosh Hashanah!

Happy Jewish New Year.
L'Shana Tova. שנה טובה

xo