Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Sweet Potato Torta with Dijon Creme



Here is a tease for the recipe to be found later in the post.  It was a pure comfort food dish and we both liked it . :-)

Tuesday afternoon:

For some reason when the humidity is high and it is cold the damp chill seems to go right through me. Just like yesterday there doesn’t seem to enough hot green tea in the house to keep me warm today.

Mid afternoon snack:


After I made another batch of fat free hummus this afternoon I was craving it. I grabbed a good amount of hummus and sliced half a cucumber for my afternoon snack.

Dinner:

This idea started out as lasagna and ended up as a torta. Since we had flour the last two weeks when going out to eat I wasn’t too keen on the idea of using it tonight in lasagna. I decided to thinly slice sweet potatoes on the mandoline and use those to separate the layers instead. Here is what I made for dinner:

Sweet Potato Torta with a light Dijon Creme  (pictured above)
Serves 4

Ingredients:

½ cup raw cashews (soak for two hours and drain if not using a high powered blender)
¼ cup oats (pregrind into flour first if not using a high powered blender)
1 ½ cup water
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (allow to stand 10 minutes so allicin can develop)
1 ½ tablespoons Dijon (or to taste, I added it ½ tablespoon at a time)
2 small or 1 large sweet potato, thinly sliced on a mandoline
14 ounces extra firm tofu, drained and squeezed dry
1 clove garlic, peeled
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons brown rice flour (any flour will work)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the creme sauce combine the cashews, oats, water and garlic in your blender and process until smooth. Pour this into a sauce pan and cook on low whisking until it begins to thicken. Add Dijon to taste and then keep the sauce warm until it is time to assemble the lasagna.

Combine the drained tofu, garlic, dry mustard and flour in your food processor and process until smooth.

Slice the sweet potato very thinly on your mandoline.
 
Place a little of the creme sauce into the bottom of a loaf pan. Top with sliced sweet potatoes, tofu and then more cream sauce. Continue layering ending with cream sauce. Cover the top with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. Test to see if the sweet potatoes are tender by piercing the lasagna with a paring knife. If you get not resistance the sweet potatoes are tender.

I baked the dish uncovered for 15 minutes to help the dish set. Ideally you will wait 20 minutes before slicing this and plating (so that it has a chance to firm up a bit).

I served this with walnut parmesan on top.

Nutritional Information (without the walnut parmesan):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 227.6
Calories From Fat (42%) - 96.57

Total Fat - 11.56g
Saturated Fat - 1.54g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 101.39mg
Potassium - 374.81mg
Total Carbohydrates - 20.93g
Fiber - 2.81g
Sugar - 2.66g
Protein - 13.89g

Comments:

This dish has a subtle flavor, which was intentional. I wanted to make something that was pure comfort food. It needed the walnut parmesan to bump up the flavor but I think this was quite good. We both enjoyed it and could have eaten double this amount but decided to show a bit of restraint.

You could also make this with whole wheat pasta in addition to the sweet potatoes but you will need a larger pan as any more in my loaf pan would have gone over the side while baking since tofu expands when it cooks.


To accompany the torta I made a simple salad of romaine, Roma tomato, avocado and red wine vinegar.

Breakfast this morning:

We woke up this morning to a 48 degree day. Brrrr. Needless to say Dan wanted oatmeal this morning rather than a smoothie and I can’t say I blamed him.

While Dan got ready to leave for work I packed his lunch of leftover chili topped quinoa, a simple salad of shaved cucumber, shaved carrot, diced tomato, and minced parsley topped with the Dijon, red wine vinegar and stevia, frozen grapes and trail mix. No I didn’t make fresh veggie and fruit juice this morning. *rolls eyes*. I really need to get back to doing that everyday. *shakes head*


After exercising I decided to make myself a small bowl of quinoa topped with the end of the chili. I wanted something warm this morning and not oatmeal. This was accompanied with a double green tea with ascorbate C.

I am feeling the urge to cook returning.  Hopefully I will have time to post a new recipe later today.  I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday.

20 comments:

  1. OMG Ali, that torta looks PHENOMENAL!! My friend Ari, who, as you probably already know, I spend a lot of time with, LOVES sweet potatoes. Anything I make with sweet potatoes makes her VERY happy. Can't wait to make this one for her!

    xoxo,
    LJ

    ReplyDelete
  2. LJ,

    It was really easy to make as long as you have a mandoline. I used my cheap fixed blade model because I didn't feel like cleaning the big momma and it worked fine. ;-)

    If Ari loves sweet potatoes this should make her happy. Even my finicky hubby liked it.

    hugs to you too,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't have a mandoline, but what about the slicing attachment thingy on my cuisinart? Would that get the job done?

    xoxo,
    LJ

    ReplyDelete
  4. LJ,

    That should work, use the thinnest setting. If your sweet potato slices are thicker than mine you may need to bake the torta longer but that should be the only change you would need to make.

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  5. That torta is so inventive! Perfect for fall.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sarah,

    Thanks! :-) I have not idea where that combo came from but it worked. It appears my cooking inspiration is coming back. ;-)

    I hope you are having a good week,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ali,
    What a wonderful idea for sweet potatoes (one of my favorite foods)...can't wait to try this one. I'm putting the ingredients on my shopping list:))
    xo
    Aimee

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Aimee,

    This was easy and great cold weather comfort food. Be sure to let it cool off before you try to get it out of the pan or is will slide apart like hot lasagna. I hope you like it as much as we did.

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh I hate it when it's cool, humid and wet. It just soaks into the bones. That tora sounds so good. Yum. Definitely need to remember this. My list is huge by the way thanks to you ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Heather,

    Cold rain is not my favorite either, though it is good for sleeping under a heavy blanket. ;-)

    This worked out much better than I expected. I was worried it wouldn't stick together but it surprised me.

    Glad I could add to your list providing that is a good thing. ;-)

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh my...that torta looks deicious. I love sweet potatoes! I will be trying that out for sure!! :o)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Michelle,

    Thanks! :-) This might even be something your omni hubby enjoys. I hope you both like it as much as we did.

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  13. The torta looks delicious and so does that bowl of quinoa with chili. It's been way to cold for October down here...it was 67 degrees on Monday! That's not normal down South for early Oct. I hope that doesn't mean we're in for a harsh winter. I will straight up move to Mexico in protest.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Bianca,

    It has been crazy cold here too. I think our high today was 60 which is 15 degrees cooler than normal. Heading south is sounding like a good idea to me too.

    The sweet potato dish was one of those experiments that turned out better than I hoped. I will be using that method again in the future. ;-)

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh, quinoa and chili for breakfast - I love it. I have always loved non-breakfast foods in the morning, even when it meant cold pizza.

    The sweet potato torta looks great, too. What a great way to eat them. I have really developed a taste for Dijon, too, and although I can't imagine that with the sweet potatoes, I bet it's great and worth a try.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Jessica,

    I have been known to have cold pizza for breakfast too. Is it a midwest thing? LOL

    Dan doesn't like dijon so the flavor is very mild in this. He told me he couldn't taste it in fact so you could add more. You could also use nutritional yeast if you prefer. I thought the dish needed a touch of "zip" in the background. ;-)

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  17. Your torta looks wonderful and reminds me of lasagna in its composition. I bet the sweet potato paired with the creamy sauce is just heavenly!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Ricki,

    Lasagna was the inspiration for the dish. It was an experiment that turned out better than I expected. It was definitely a cold weather comfort food dish. ;-)

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  19. I grew up eating tortilla's and I adore sweet potatoes. You had me at the headline!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ann-Marie,

    Glad you like the sound of it. This was actually very easy to make. I had it ready for the oven in the time it took the oven to preheat, then it was just waiting for it to bake. It needs the walnut parm on top to round out the flavor but it reminds me of traditional comfort food.

    Ali

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails