I’m still stuffed. I only had one dinner plate + one dessert sized plate of food [but no real dessert!]. We had everything on the table by 1pm. We have always done a Thanksgiving lunch for as long as I can remember. It gives everyone time to graze all day, and for other family members/friends who are passing through to make it to other stops on their food coma extravaganza. It had to be one of the smallest groups we’ve had in awhile. 10 total. I think my grandma said our biggest feast had over 35.

The star of my day was the sweet potatoes.

I’m notorious for changing things up on my family. I could get away with it on the sweet potatoes since only half of the family likes them anyway (…weirdos). I had to omit the fact that there was goat cheese in these until after everyone had tried them. Certain members of the family are notorious for not trying new things if they know something is in it that they think they don’t like. I’m much more of a “give it an honest chance” kind of person. If you don’t like it after a bite, then by all means that will be more for me.

Despite there obviously being kale in this, you can’t taste it. At all. It blends right into the sweet potatoes. I always get a little giddy when I can inject a little more green into the Turkey Day table. I’m all for carbs and protein, but a little greenery never hurt anyone. The nice thing is you can make these as sweet as you want. There is only a hint of goat cheese tang, so it doesn’t fight any brown sugar you might want to stir in. I only added in a tablespoon and a half, but could have probably upped it to three for the sweet tooths in the house.

Everything went off without a hitch. Not that I was really worried. I was up at 7am to start in on the dough for the rolls. That’ll be a fun story for another day. For now, I’d like to sleep off this food coma.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Inspiration: Veggie Belly

Ingredients

2lbs sweet potato/yams, cubed and peeled

1 bunch kale, torn into bite size pieces

1 cup milk [I used coconut]

4oz goat cheese [I used an herbed chevre].

Salt, pepper, and brown sugar to taste

Preparation

Put your cubed sweet potatoes into a large pot and cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil and cook the potatoes until they get soft, about 10-15 minutes. Drain them. Keep them in the colander while you heat the milk, kale, and goat cheese in the pot on medium high heat. Stir until the goat cheese is thoroughly broken up and the kale is soaked. Cook for a few minutes until the kale gets soft and wilted. Add the potatoes back in. Mash to your hearts content. Season with salt, pepper, and brown sugar to your tastes. Add more milk if you like runnier potatoes.