Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Tamarind Date Chutney
Chaat is one of the most popular categories of food in India, and for good reason, explains Palak Patel, who created the website The Chutney Life and published a cookbook with the same name. It encompasses hundreds of dishes that generally are sweet, salty, spicy, savory and tangy—all in one bite. Chaat is considered more of a snack than a meal, and these roasted sweet potatoes are Palak’s play on a simpler, easy-to-make-on-the-fly chaat. To finish the dish, she serves the potatoes with cooling yogurt and a drizzle of her tamarind date chutney, created exclusively for Williams Sonoma. Feel free to replace the sweet potatoes with roasted carrots or butternut squash if you like. This makes for a gorgeous and impressive side dish as well as a delicious snack.
Ingredients
For the sweet potatoes:
- 3 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into cubes
- 1 Tbs. neutral oil
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 1/2 tsp. Indian red chili powder or cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
For the yogurt sauce:
- 1/2 cup (4 oz./125 g) plain yogurt
- 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp. Indian red chili powder or cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp. sugar
- 1/4 tsp. chaat masala
- Pinch of salt
For serving:
- 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./125 ml) The Chutney Life x Williams Sonoma Tamarind Date Chutney
- 2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/4 cup (1 1/4 oz./40 g) finely chopped red onion
- Handful of pomegranate seeds
- 1/4 tsp. chaat masala
Directions
Preheat an oven to 450°F (230°C).
To prepare the sweet potatoes, in a large bowl, combine the sweet potatoes, neutral oil, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and cumin and mix well. Divide the sweet potatoes between 2 baking sheets, making sure that all the potatoes are touching the bottom of the pan. Roast until the potatoes are golden brown, charred in spots and cooked all the way through, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
Meanwhile, prepare the yogurt sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, cumin, chili powder, sugar, chaat masala and salt.
To serve, spread the yogurt sauce on the bottom of a large oval serving platter. Drizzle on the tamarind date chutney and place the sweet potatoes on top. Garnish with the cilantro, onion, pomegranate seeds and a sprinkling of chaat masala and serve. Serves 4.
Courtesy of Palak Patel, author of The Chutney Life