A recipe from The Bitten Word
Cheap, healthy and fast. It's the trifecta of home cooking.
Don't get us wrong: We sometimes love devoting hours to a slow-cooked dish. And we're fine with splurging on special ingredients. (And lord knows we like our share of unhealthy foods!)
But for a get-us-through-the-week mid-week dinner, we're always striving for the same triple-header: cheap, healthy and fast.
Here's a meal we've been making a lot lately that is a total winner on all three counts.
The ingredient that makes this dish is the chorizo. The chorizo is a super-fast shortcut to deep, layered flavor. Its smoky, spicy taste adds a wonderfully complex flavor profile to a dish, and all you have to do is brown it.
If you don't like chorizo, or if you think it's too spicy, you can swap in Italian sausage here. But we love the way the spicy chorizo pairs with the sweet potato.
We've written the recipe to only use one pan, so the instructions may seem like a lot of putting something into the pan and then taking it out again. What can we say? We hate hand-washing pans. Doing things sequentially like this means you'll only have to wash the one skillet (everything else can get thrown in the dishwasher).
We're just crazy about this dish: It's a great mix of spicy-sweet flavors, and the toasted walnuts add a really nice crunch. You can do tons of variations -- throw in a handful of raisins if you want, or a couple cups of fresh spinach.
As we said, it's healthful and low-carb. And it's plenty cheap: The whole thing (including buying all ingredients, other than the oil and nuts, at our local farmers market) costs us less than $10 total. We think that's a pretty cheap dinner.
Cheap, healthy and fast.
Oh, wait!
We totally forgot the fourth important point: Absolutely delicious.
Chorizo and Sweet Potato Hash
A recipe from The Bitten Word
Makes 2 generous entree servings.
NOTE
We suggest using a Latin style chorizo, similar to fresh sausage, rather than a Spanish style chorizo, which is cured and dried.
INGREDIENTS
4 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (from about 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes)
1 cup walnuts, broken into pieces
1 pound chorizo (or Italian sausage, if you prefer), casings removed
olive oil as needed
1 medium onion, diced
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
DIRECTIONS
Place diced sweet potatoes in microwave-safe bowl with 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook on high heat until potatoes are tender, about 6 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, toast walnut pieces over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until toasted and nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.
Increase heat to medium high. Into the skillet, add a teaspoon of oil, then add the chorizo and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 8-10 minutes. Remove sausage to a paper towel-lined plate.
Add onions to skillet. (If there's not enough fat in the pan from the chorizo, add 1 tablespoon olive oil.) Sauté onions until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes.
Add sweet potatoes, walnuts and chorizo to the onions. Stir until combined and sweet potatoes are beginning to brown, about 5-8 minutes. (You may want to add 1 or 2 more tablespoons olive oil to help the ingredients combine and finish cooking.)
Top with chopped cilantro or parsley and serve.
