The organically grown baby “garnet yams” in our local produce market were just too good to pass up. I roasted them, slightly covered in olive oil and lightly salted, in a 350-375 degree oven, accompanied by whole garlic cloves and chopped stick cinnamon. They were ready in 15-20 minutes. I thought I would share them as part of November’s Spice Rack Challenge.

The idea came from the New York Times food writer Melissa Clark, who describes the cinnamon infusion as a great reference to the flavors and aromas of the Thanksgiving season. While I began roasting the yams whole, I thought that slicing them would help the cinnamon infusion. So would lightly crushing the cinnamon sticks. You wouldn’t get the same result from ground cinnamon since it would probably just burn. 

The cinnamon sticks were from a jar of pickled grapes that I made last spring, and just replenished, starting with new sticks. As the old adage goes, “Waste not, want not.” This was a terrific way to re-use what would otherwise have ended in the compost pile prematurely.

Categories: Spice Rack Challenge, Sweet potato