This recipe was the last I was able to make whilst living in Chicago, IL…..and it’s a good one! I was making baked pork chops and wanted a healthy side dish to go with them. In comes sweet apples and nutritious sweet potatoes to provide the healthy side dish I was looking for!
Everyone knows apples and pork chops should be married, of course Indiana’s governor, Mike Pence, would probably sign a law to allow cooks to discriminate against their sweet and savory matrimony, but I for one will forever accept apples and pork chops for what they are….a match made in tasty heaven.
My Mom frequently made pork chops and apple sauce for our family when I was little. It was always one of my favorite dishes. As an adult I often crave this delectable duo, but for this particular recipe I didn’t have apple sauce on hand. I did, however, have leftover sweet potatoes and a handful of fresh apples!
I think this recipe is world’s better if you use two different kinds of apples. I used 2 golden delicious and 2 pink lady apples for this side dish. The first time I cooked roasted apples with sweet potatoes, I cooked everything together for approx 40 minutes. The recipe was good, but the apples were WAY too mushy for my taste. Ever since then, I’ve cooked the potatoes alone, for approx 10-20 minutes, and added the apples for the remaining time, which resulted in soft yet firm apples…..it was perfection!
I love this recipe because it’s no fuss…just a few ingredients…. but it packs a nutritious and delicious punch. The only downer would be the amount of time it takes this recipe to cook….which is approx 40-50 minutes. That can be a long time, especially if you have kids! Cutting the sweet potatoes in smaller chunks will greatly speed up the cooking process…which goes without saying…..so I’m not sure why I’m saying it…or while I’m still talking about it……yet here I am….still typing away…
Anyway, I peel and chop up the sweet potatoes in the morning, or the night before. Luckily, sweet potatoes do not turn brown when exposed to air like russet potatoes, so you can put them in a plastic baggie or container the day or morning before. If you’re prepping your sweet potatoes days in advance, it’s best to place them in a bowl of cold water, and put them in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them. Just remember to towel dry the sweet potatoes before you bake them!
I used coconut oil as my cooking oil, which tastes amazing. Coconut oil has a subtle sweetness that pairs well with apples and sweet potatoes. Coconut oil is also becoming quickly well known for it’s health benefits too! I prefer cooking this recipe with coconut oil, but olive oil would work as well.
I added dried thyme to the apples and sweet potatoes for a savory kick. It tastes amazing, but you can certainly omit the thyme if you or your children loath it.
Enjoy!
Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Ingredients
- 2 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cubed
- 2 pink lady apples, peeled, cored, and cubed
- 2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- ¼ cup of melted coconut oil
- Fresh or dried thyme to taste (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
- Either spray your baking sheet with cooking spray, or line it with tin foil. Remember to spray the tin foil with a little cooking spray too…otherwise the apples and sweet potatoes will stick.
You can now do one of two things:
- If you like your apples mushier, combine the apples and sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Pour in the coconut oil and gently stir until all ingredients are well coated. Now spill the contents of the bowl onto your baking sheet and even out the ingredients so they are in a single layer. Sprinkle some thyme, salt, and pepper over the apples and sweet potatoes. Bake apples/sweet potatoes for 40 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are cooked to your likeness!
- If you like firmer apples, leave the apples out of the oven for the first 20-30 minutes of cooking time. I waited to peel, core, and cube my apples until 10 minutes before I was ready to bake them. Pull the baking sheet out of the oven and gently stir in the apples. Use a little more melted coconut oil if need be, then add a little more salt, thyme, and pepper to your liking! Pop the baking sheet back into the oven and cook for the remaining 10-20 minutes, or until you get the sweet potatoes as soft as you like them.
Finish the recipe:
- Once the apples and sweet potatoes are finished, take the baking sheet out of the oven. Taste for salt and pepper, adding more if you fee necessary.
- Using a spatula, gently lift the apples and sweet potatoes onto your plate, or serving dish, and enjoy!