Baked Sweet Potatoes with honey, sea salt, and sage

Sa-weet.

Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite dishes because there is so much crammed in to one little tuber. It's packed with vitamins, a gorgeous color, and a wonderful hearty flavor that can be prepared in so many ways.  The saucy sweet potato is versatile: it can be mashed, sliced and baked (as above), or easily cooked in the microwave.  It's even showing up in baking flours these days.  Sweet potato pancakes? Yes, please. And, to make matters easier in preparation, sweet potatoes are fabulous with the skin on (to me, this is one of its best offerings to the taste buds), and the skin is where a lot of the vitamins work their magic.

The above dish is 8 medium sweet potatoes. While you're waiting for the oven to heat up (425 degrees), wash the potatoes thoroughly and wipe off with a dish towel to remove excess dirt (this WILL affect the flavor, trust me.)  Slice the SPs into halves or thick slivers, as above.  Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray, then place the SPs on the tray, orange sides up.

Throw whatever spices and oils you want on top.  This recipe is sprinkled with olive oil, cinnamon, citrus, sea salt, and honey on top for it to bake into the SPs.  The citrus salt on top gave it a tangy flavor that went well with the sage.

Cook for about 25 minutes - check at 20, you may cook them for up to 30 minutes.  When you take them out, top them with sage leaves - or, any other spice or herb you'd prefer.  The SPs are best when served hot, but they do make great leftovers or can even be mashed later or enjoyed with vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.