Maple roasted sweet potatoes

One night, I went into the kitchen to make dinner. I was planning to make simple baked sweet potatoes (which I love topped with ricotta, but this particular night they'd just be plain) and lo and behold, Claire Robinson was making a 5 ingredient fix of sweet potatoes. Perfect! She pureed hers, but I left mine in cubes. They were ridiculously good, each of us had 2 servings.

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes
adapted from Claire Robinson
Serves 4, unless you really love maple and sweet potatoes, then serves 2.

2 sweet potatoes/yams, peeled and diced (1/2inch cubes)
4T maple syrup, divided (3T and 1T)
3T olive oil
salt and pepper to season
1 large onion, cut into thin slices
1T butter

Toss the cubed sweet potatoes with 3T maple syrup, 2T olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a foil-lined (for easy clean-up) baking sheet and bake at 400F for about 45 minutes. Toss them gently around a bit every so often to keep them from sticking to the foil.

Meanwhile, place the remaining 1T olive oil and the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook for a few minutes, until the onion begins to soften. Add the remaining 1T maple syrup to help speed up the caramelization and cook a few minutes more (about 10 min total).

Serve the sweet potatoes topped with the onions.

I think we may have found a new favorite method of preparing sweet potatoes.

Claire's way was to puree the sweet potatoes after they come out of the oven with half the onions, and then top with the remaining onions, but I like the roasty edges of the potato cubes. Plus I hate washing my food processor.