Sweet Potato Steaks Recipe

I’ve been reading so much about vegetables taking centre stage on the dinner plate; serving cauliflower and butternut pumpkin as steaks, that I decided to try it for myself.

As I’m not a big cauliflower or pumpkin person there was none in my fridge. But as I stared at my vegetable crisper looking for inspiration a sweet potato was smiling back at me, almost saying ‘steak-me on.’

I enjoy sweet potato and have been having fun over the last few months creating multiple dishes that look and taste different but use up a sweet potato, as for me one sweet potato is enough for three meals.

So the challenge was on to make sweet potato steaks.

My go-to flavour profile with sweet potato is sweet and smoky. What I think of as Southern American inspired – maple syrup and smoky paprika. 

I decided to use the method suggested for cooking butternut pumpkin steak in the American Test Kitchen’s Vegan book: bake in a very hot oven, then caramelise and crisp up in a hot fry pan. 

It was delicious, truly so yum, that this is my new, favourite way to cook sweet potatoes.

I served my sweet potato steaks with the usual sides I do with meat steak – mashed potatoes and a light salad of watercress from the garden –  plus corn and pecans to round out the southern American flavours.

If you’re looking for a change from meat as a main course or another way to cook sweet potato, then I suggest that this is a must-try approach.  

Enjoy!

The recipe details are for one person to make the steaks. You can add your favourite side dishes. When I cook potato mash fojsut4Me, I cook 1–2 potatoes (about 200 g)

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Sweet potato steaks

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A delicious non-meat dinner. Sweet potato steaks. I’ve used sweet and smoky flavours to marinade the steaks but feel free to use your favourite flavour profile.

• Author: Caroline
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 1
• Category: Main Course Dinner
• Method: Bake and Fry
• Cuisine: Modern vegan

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp maple syrup

6 drops Tabasco ( or to taste)

 1/4 tsp smoky paprika

 salt, to taste 

fresh ground black pepper, to taste

1/2  medium-sized sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 2 cm rounds

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 220C.

Place a baking rack on a baking tray.

Mix marinade ingredients together in a small bowl with a spoon.

Score both sides of sweet potato rounds with a sharp knife to form diamond pattern cuts about 1/4 the way into the sweet potato, this will allow the marinade to soak in.

Brush both sides of the steaks with marinade, (keep remaining marinade to pour over the cooked steaks and as salad dressing) place on the roasting rack, and bake in preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes. You want then to still have some resistance when stabbed with a sharp knife, so check after 20 minutes.

When cooked, remove from oven.

Heat a little oil in a frypan to almost smoking.

Add steaks and crisp for a few minutes on each side.

Serve topped with remaining marinade and with sides of your choice. In photos, I served with mashed potatoes and salad of watercress, corn and pecan dressed with a little of the marinade.

Keywords: sweet potatoes, vegan main, plant based main course