Sweet Potato Waffles

These subtly sweet and arguably healthy waffles are perfect for giving new life to leftover cooked sweet potatoes or neglected vegetable purees. I also highly recommend making a batch and freezing for easy kid friendly weekday breakfast. These are actually improved after freezing and a quick toast. No need to defrost first. Just pop a frozen waffle in your toaster at your preferred setting.

Makes ~6 waffles

What you need:

• 1 cup white all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch of ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cup plain unsweetened kefir or drinkable yogurt
• 2 eggs, room temperature, separated
• 1 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided

What you do:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, egg yolks, sweet potatoes, maple syrup and vanilla. Add most of the butter (reserving about 1 tablespoon for brushing the waffle iron) and whisk swiftly.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix in a few swift strokes with a rubber spatula. It's okay if some of the dry ingredients are not fully incorporated. Do not over mix.
4. Heat up your waffle iron. While it is heating, with a whisk or electric mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Do not over mix. You are done when you see small pieces of whites speckling the batter.
6. Brush both sides of waffle iron with melted butter. Scoop about 1/3 cup of batter onto the waffle iron leaving room for spread. Cook 4-5 minutes or according to the setting of your iron. Serve immediately with maple syrup or keep warm in a low oven.
7. Freezer tip: cool on a wire rack before transferring to a freezer safe container.

Notes:

• Change the spices to suit your taste. Feel free to use more or less cinnamon, ginger, or cloves, remove altogether or add other spices like nutmeg.
• My vegetable mash of choice for waffles is the flesh (skins discarded) of oven baked/roasted sweet potatoes, but other roasted and steamed vegetables and fruits substitute nicely. Try squash, pumpkin, carrots, beets, apples or combination. See my note in the Shopping in Your Freezer post regarding using what you have.
• If you don't have kefir or drinkable yogurt, you can use about 5+ oz plain Greek yogurt whisked together with enough milk to make 1 1/2 cups of thick liquid. Buttermilk also works.

Spicy Root Vegetable and Sausage Hash with Soft Boiled Eggs

Adapted from Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health

This is a go to winter recipe for make ahead breakfast and lunch. Just reheat and top with a soft-boiled egg you made in a large batch over the weekend. Adjust the heat level to your personal taste by dialing up (or back) the amount of jalapeno or by adding some cayenne pepper. If you're monitoring your sodium, try this recipe with ground chicken or turkey in place of the sausage and increase the spices. I like to add fennel seeds in this case. You can also vary the root vegetables - try yukon golds, parsnips and turnips too and you can opt to roast the root veggies instead of steaming them.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 2 medium beets

• 1 large sweet potato, medium dice

• 2 large carrots, medium dice

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• ½ red onion, small dice

• 2 jalapenos, halved, seeds and membranes removed, sliced into ¼ inch strips or 1 dried chili, crushed

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 lb. spicy or sweet Italian sausage, loose (not in casing), turkey or pork

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

• 1 teaspoon dried sage or 2 teaspoons fresh sage leaves, minced

• 6 eggs

Procedure:

1. In a pressure cooker, cook beets until tender, about 15-20 minutes.* Allow to cool. Peel and cut into medium dice.

2. Fill a medium pot with water to reach the bottom of a steamer basket. Insert steamer basket. Add sweet potatoes and carrots and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, cover, steam until vegetables are tender but maintain their shape, about 8 minutes. Remove lid, remove from stove and allow to cool slightly.

3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. When it shimmers, add the red onion and a pinch of salt. Sauté until soft, about 2 minutes.

4. Add jalapeños and garlic and sauté another minute. If you are using dried herbs, add them at this time and sauté for another 30 seconds. Move to the cooler side of the pan.

5. Add the sausage, break it up with a wooden spoon or a fork, and cook on medium high heat until cooked through.

6. Add in the beets, sweet potato, and carrots, and, if using, the fresh herbs. Add a pinch of salt and stir gently to combine while on medium high heat. Heat through.

7. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Gently add in eggs. When water comes back to a boil, set timer for 6 minutes. Prepare an ice bath. After 6 minutes, quickly remove eggs from pot with a slotted spoon and drop into ice bath. Peel and serve on top of hash. See my blog for a step by step photographed tutorial on soft boiled eggs.

*If you do not have a pressure cooker, wash, peel and cut beets into small dice. Then steam in pot with steamer basket, separately from other root vegetables, about 7 minutes.