| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 15 min |
| Prep: | 15 min |
| Cook: | 1 hr |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 4 medium sized yams, or sweet potatoes, cut in 1/2
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Toasted Spice Rub, recipe follows
- 1/2 teaspoon gray salt
- 1/4 cup fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon peppercorns
- 1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup (1-ounce) pure California chili powder
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Put sweet potatoes in a glass or stainless steel bowl.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar and lemon juice. When sugar is completely melted, stir in Toasted Spice Rub and gray salt. Pour mixture over sweet potatoes. Toss well.
- Arrange sweet potatoes in a baking dish, cut side up. With rubber spatula, scrape all the butter and spice mixture over the top of the sweet potatoes, and then add a sprinkling of Toasted Spice Rub on top of each one. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees F until easily pierced with a knife.
- Toast the fennel seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns in a small, heavy pan over medium heat. When the fennel turns light brown, work quickly. Turn on the exhaust fan, add the red pepper flakes, and toss, toss, toss, always under the fan. Immediately turn the spice mixture out onto a plate to cool. Put in a blender with the chili powder, salt, and cinnamon and blend until the spices are evenly ground. If you have a small spice mill or a coffee grinder dedicated to grinding spices, grind only the fennel, coriander, pepper, and chili flakes. Pour into a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 410 |
| Total Fat | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Carbohydrates | 47 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 12 g |
| Sugar | 15 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Cholesterol | 61 mg |
| Sodium | 454 mg |
Reviews
This is my new go-to yam recipe. I’ve made it twice. The smell of all the spices is intoxicating and the recipe for the rub makes a good amount, enough to use on another dish; I’m thinking tri tip. So glad I found this recipe.
Yum! Made this recipe using organic Japanese purple yams, cut in 1/4’s, and went light on the chili powder.. delicious! 🙂
An outstanding recipe. My wife and son loved it. This is going to become one of our “specials”. That Toasted Spice Rub is worth the price of admission and will be used on other courses. I cooked both yams and sweet potatoes, cause we had both, and found them nicely different from one another. We will do this for company.
the secret of covering in a Pyrex dish and uncovering on a cookie sheet had never occured to me. I used prepared Gram Masala and red chilli powder I got from an Indian store. The result was out of this world…..I hope I can repeat it……
I just almost completely lost my mind. I thought I misplaced this recipe and required going thru my entire box to find. Luckily it got stuck in the desserts. I strongly urge you to try this recipe just once. It will become the family favorite every Thanksgiving holiday and during the winter months. Prepare extra spice and keep in your cupboard. The spices in this recipe just warm you thru, and it will be asked for year after year. So I am now adding to my recipe box, never to be misplaced again.
This is a great recipe for yams and the aroma while cooking is fantastic. Was not as spicy as I would have thought either. I sliced the yams in 4-5 pieces rather than in half as the recipe suggests. Much more manageable and allows people to sample easily.
I didn’t have all the spices, so the only ones I used where salt, pepper and cinnamon. The sweetness of the yams and the sugar was counterbalanced by salt, and the buttery mixture added nice softness. Perhaps I’ll put less salt next time, but this can certainly be a moderately health snack or even dessert.
I now make this every Thanksgiving. This is year three. I’ve made it with yams and sweet potatoes. I just slice the yams into 12 inch pieces. No more boring sweet potatoes! Just the right amount of spiciness.
This spice rub is delicious — so much flavor and a nice complement to the sweet yams. Might have been a little too flavorful for my bland Thanksgiving day crowd, but my husband and I loved them.
I threw this out after a few bites. I may have done something wrong, but it came out very dry and way too spicy hot.