What's Cooking? ReHashing the Sweet Potato

Why is it that weekends always seem to pass by so quickly? Between darting around to yoga, the market, errands, my kitchen, etc. time just flies. I feel like Friday afternoon was mere hours ago. This sense seems to grow stronger during winter months, when the sky never reaches full light, the gray mornings make waking difficult, and the early sunset induce cravings for curling up on a comfy chair with a novel. For this reason, my dinner tonight served to feed both my desire for comfort and warmth, and the need for something relatively quick and simple to make.

It is a combination of the hearty winter veggie/starch that seriously makes winter survivable (along with winter squashes), and some other warming ingredients. The sweet potato may be a transplant from the warmer southern part of this continent and our sister in the other hemisphere, but it manages to grow well in the northern summer and fall and keep in cool dry places throughout the winter. I tend to think of it as a more nutritious and filling cousin to the standard white potato, but that may be mostly misguided (and I have been known to consume an excess and turn orange). So, without further ado, I present to you the most lovable winter hash!

Sweet Potato Hash
1 medium sweet potato, grated
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 block tempeh
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 tsp agave nectar
1 tbs vegetable stock (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for the skillet

1. Crumble up tempeh and let marinate in the mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, and agave.
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high. Toss sweet potato, onion, and perhaps some of the salt, before adding it to the hot pan. Cook until onion starts to soften.
3. Throw in the tempeh. Pan fry for another 10-15 minutes (about 30 minutes total), until sweet potato is completely cooked and onion is translucent. You may need to add a dash of water or vegetable stock. Serve warm!

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