The Healthy Sweet Potato Tots a Famed Chef’s Family Noshes on All Winter
Noma may be Denmark's most famous restaurant, but it turns out the locale's legendary chef Rene Redzepi isn't the only one in the family who's a force in the kitchen—his wife Nadine Levy Redzepi is just as talented. Redzepi herself cooks wholesome, stylish, and seasonal meals for the whole family out of their Copenhagen home—and any world-famous chef friends who happen to pop by for dinner.
If you're curious to see how they eat in the privacy of their own home, look no further than the pages of her new cookbook, Downtime. One of the standout recipes—a finger-licking plate of sweet potato tots with cumin beets and salted yogurt—was inspired by one of Redzepi’s trips to Mumbai, India. “We ate a lot of vegetarian food in Mumbai. All of it was so delicious and packed with so many spices I didn’t even think about the lack of meat,” she says.
It was on this trip where she first tried salted yogurt and discovered chickpea flour, and this recipe incorporates both, to a delicious effect: The crispy sweet potato patties are enriched with the chickpea flour and then topped with sweet spiced beets and a dollop of savory yogurt.
“The flavor and warmth of the spices make me think of the trip to Mumbai,” says Redzepi. She likes to serve this dish alongside dal, as they would in India or paired with fried eggs. “My kids even love these in their lunchboxes,” she says. Though unlike PB&Js, this is one dish they likely won't grow out of.
Scroll down to for Redzepi's recipe for her sweet potato tots with cumin beets and salted yogurt.
Sweet potato tots with cumin beets and salted yogurt
Serves 6 to 8
Sweet Potato Tots
3 medium sweet potatoes
1 small shallot, peeled and finely chopped
2 scallions, white and light green parts only, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika
3 cups garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour, as needed
Sea salt
1/3 cup canola oil, as needed
Cumin Beets
1 large beet
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 lemon
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salted Yogurt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
3/4 tsp sea salt
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°F).
2. Bake the sweet potatoes: Scrub the potatoes under cold running water but leave them unpeeled. Pierce each a few times with a fork. Place on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Bake until they are tender when pierced with the tip of a small knife, about one hour. Let them cool completely.
3. Make the cumin beets: Peel the beet. Grate it on the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the cumin seeds or crush them on a chopping board with a heavy saucepan. Add to the beet. Squeeze in the lemon juice, drizzle with the oil, and toss well. Let stand at room temperature until ready to serve.
4. Make the salted yogurt: Mix the yogurt and salt in a small serving bowl, cover, and refrigerate.
5. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop the flesh out of the sweet potatoes into a medium bowl. Using a microplane or the small holes of a box grater, grate the ginger and garlic into the sweet potato mixture. Add the turmeric and paprika and mix well. Adding one cup at a time, mix in the garbanzo bean flour. Season with salt. Shape the mixture into patties about two-and-a-half inches wide and one-half inch thick. (If the dough sticks to your hands, mix in a bit more garbanzo bean flour.) Transfer the patties to the prepared baking sheet.
6. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat until the oil is shimmering but not smoking. Add two or three patties to the pan and cook until there are golden brown patches on the undersides, about two minutes. Flip the patties and cook until the other side looks the same, about two minutes more. Transfer the patties to a large serving platter. Cook the remaining patties in batches, adding more oil to the skillet as needed.
7. Add the beet and yogurt bowls to the platter and place it on the counter so your guests can help themselves to the patties and top them with a bit of yogurt and a spoonful of beets.
Recipe reprinted from Downtime: Deliciousness at Home by arrangement with Pam Krauss Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2017, Nadine Levy Redzepi.
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