Gingered Sweet Potatoes

Christmas lunch this year was a fifteen person affair, hosted by my Mother. Mum is an excellent cook who regularly caters for big groups (earlier this year she put on a soup and sandwich dinner for seventy carollers at the church). She doesn't really need much help from me, except that the Christmas dinner vegetables are often quite traditional and need a bit of excitement. It's a mixed family group so the aim is to keep the dinner quite palatable for the older folks while not boring the younger generation either.

This gingered sweet potato puree was one of the vegetable dishes I was overseeing this year. I also looked after the Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower, green beans, and carrots, all of which were very traditionally prepared. We used two slow cookers for the beans and carrots (cooked side-by-side in one slow cooker) and the sweet potatoes. Mother actually picked the recipe as well and then assigned it to me for cooking, so I can't really take that much credit for the finished dish! Since it's made in the slow cooker it's very easy to do.

Gingered Sweet Potato Puree
adapted from Canadian Living
serves 8 as a side dish

4 large sweet potatoes
1 T mild oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cm ginger root, minced
1/2 t table salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 c (125 ml) water or vegetable stock
2 T chopped fresh parsley

Chop the sweet potatoes into 1 cm dice.
Gently fry the onion, ginger, salt, and pepper in the oil.
Add the sweet potato and onion mixture to a slow cooker and toss. Add the water or stock and turn the slow cooker to low for 4 to 5 hours.
When the sweet potatoes are tender, puree the mixture and sprinkle with fresh parsley.