Citrus-Soy Sweet Potato Salad

It's funny, as I've learned to cook, I've started cooking more and more simply. You'd think I'd have started off that way, but I started off as a strictly-recipe cook, and the more ingredients and fancier the recipe, the more it challenged me and made me want to try my hand. But as I've gotten the basics of cooking down I find myself straying from recipes more and more, or even better, not being able to find the 'perfect' recipe and just deciding to wing it myself. Either way, the recipes and the ideas that attract me aren't the ultra-complex ones, but the very simplest. And during this time of year, with the short sunlight hours and frigid temps, I crave a simple hearty meal with a handful of ingredients that pull together quickly, so I can get back under that blanket on the couch.

Of course, simple recipes and limited ingredients also mean less time spent grocery shopping, which is typically a sideshow event around here with tourists constantly rolling in and trying to buy meals for their entire ski trip.

I think this recipe is equally good as a main dish, served over rice if you want to make it more filling, or a supporting dish to a piece of pork cooked asian style with similar ingredients.

Citrus-Soy Sweet Potato Salad

2 lbs. sweet potatoes, or desired amount, peeled and cut into cubes or spears or whatever shape you most desire (I cut mine into rounds because the sweets were the narrow squiggly kind)

2 Tbsp olive oil

s + p

2-3 green onions, cut diagonally into slices

1 tsp peanut oil

1-inch piece of garlic, peeled and cut into thin slices

2 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into thin slices

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup soy sauce

juice of 1 lime

2 Tbsp rice vinegar

1 Tbsp mirin

Preheat the oven to 425F. Toss the cut sweets in the olive oil and desired amount of salt and pepper to season. Bake for 35-40 minutes, tur

ning them half way through. The potatoes should be fork tender but not completely mushy.

Meanwhile, on the stove top make the dressing in a small sauce pan.

Over medium-high heat, add the peanut oil, ginger and garlic, saute 1-2 minutes until fragrant but the garlic is not browned. Add the orange juice and the soy and bring to a boil, cooking for 5-10 minutes or until the sauce has started to reduce a bit. Add the juice of the lime, and the vinegar and mirin. Reduce the heat and cook until it doesn't taste overwhelmingly soy-like or vinegary. The flavors should all kind of meld.

In a bowl, toss the sweet potatoes and green onions, then pour the dressing over and toss to coat.

Note: I had problems getting my soy-orange juice mixture to reduce, in the future I might consider adding some brown sugar instead of the mirin for sweetness, which might help with thickening the sauce, or just cheat and use some corn starch.