Baked Sweet Potato with Caramelized Onions and a Favorite Salad

This post was sponsored by Eat Smart as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own. I received product samples to facilitate my review.

Baked sweet potatoes are topped with flavorful, well-seasoned caramelized onions in this easy recipe that’s perfect with salad for a quick dinner.

When my daughter, Paige, was just preschool age — probably 3, but close to four — I signed her up for a ballet class. The class — which was centered on creative movement — met once a week and was just for kids her age. That year, only Paige and another girl signed up. Then the other girl dropped out after a few months. Fortunately, the talented teacher continued with Paige, and she spent the remainder of the school year gleefully dancing with her teacher and a few older girls who’d come in to help.

At the end of the year, I opted out of the recital. There would be other years, I thought. She was little, and the commitment for the recital was big.

But when the next year came, she didn’t want to dance again. She’d loved it, but she was on to other pursuits and dance became a distant memory.

Over the last few years, it’s come up a few times. She was interested again, and I considered it, but couldn’t fit a class into our schedule. Meanwhile, we went to a ballet performance, and then a ballet improv performance. She loved both.

As this school year approached, Paige, now almost 9, made it clear she really wanted to dance again. She’s discovered and embraced her theatrical side — something that makes me giddy with excitement — so I agreed.

Of course, that class joins her other pursuits — drama club, chorus, soccer and more — as well as my son, Will’s. The more they take on — and I encourage them to pursue things that interest them as much as possible — the more packed our afternoons and evenings become. I have a special online calendar to keep track of their activities, complete with alerts for when I need to pick them up to get them from one thing to the next.

And there’s still homework too, which is so important.

So meals like this? They are essential to us eating dinner at a reasonable time on the busiest days. The key is being organized. And cooking ahead when you can.

Like the sweet potatoes in this recipe. They take about an hour to bake, but that hour doesn’t have to be when you are rushing to get dinner on the table. You can totally do that step in advance. Baked sweet potatoes can be refrigerated and reheated in the microwave later. I usually put mine in for about a minute and a half. Once those potatoes are made, the rest happens fast.

Caramelize the onions. I use 1 cup of chopped onions for each potato, and its cooked in 1 tsp olive oil per serving. The recipe below is scaled for four servings, but you can adjust it up or down to meet you needs. Anyway, you just chop the onions, add them to a little oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook them over medium heat, stirring only once in a while (seriously, less is more when making this!), until they reach a deep, golden brown. Then remove them from the heat. You may want to season them a little more with salt and pepper — well-seasoned caramelized onions are a beautiful compliment to the sweet flesh of the nutritious sweet potato. Mmm.

But what should you serve with these tasty potatoes? A good, flavorful salad does the trick. I love Eat Smart Gourmet Vegetable Salad Kits. They’re a total secret weapon in my kitchen — particularly on busy nights when we need to add a little something more to our dinner. These kits are so convenient — they make eating healthy every day easy. And I love that they’re good in so many ways — you can use them as a side dish, make them as part of an entree, transform them into cute apps and more.

The Eat Smart Sweet Kale Vegetable Salad is perfect with these potatoes. It’s one of my favorites.

Filled with some of my favorite veggies — Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, roasted pumpkin seeds and more — this salad has a sweet but savory poppyseed dressing. I love that it comes with dried cranberries to mix in too. Anyway, to make it, you just toss all the ingredients in a bowl, mix together and serve. Easy as can be.

All told, once the sweet potatoes are cooked, this can be ready in about 15 minutes. Perfect for busy nights.

Baked Sweet Potato with Caramelized Onions

Yield: 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 4 sweet potatoes, (I prefer smaller ones)
• 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp olive oil
• 4 cups sliced and quartered red and yellow onions
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Prick the sweet potatoes a few times on the top. Place on a foil sheet in the oven. Bake for about an hour, until soft. Remove from the oven and let cool.
2. Heat the olive oil in a small nonstick skillet set over medium heat. Add the onions, season gently with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown -- about 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Slice open the sweet potatoes and squeeze. Use a fork to mash the inside. Top with the caramelized onions.
4. Enjoy immediately.

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