Pomegranate-Sweet Potato Bake for One

This dish looks like the holidays. Or autumn. Or maybe winter. I don’t know, but it’s orange and sweet, and tastes lovely, and you’ll wish you’d made two. (I just do it. I know I’ll want it again tomorrow, every single time.)

Olive oil or baking spray

½ medium sweet potato, sliced into medallions

½ cup garbanzo beans (or other light-fleshed bean), rinsed well and drained

1/3 cup pomegranate seeds (did you know that they’re called arils?)

2 TBLSP orange juice

4 teaspoons maple syrup

¼ teaspoon salt

Several shakes of ground cinnamon

A couple shakes of ground ginger

2 shakes of ground cloves

2 shakes of ground nutmeg

2 TBLSP chopped pecans

2 teaspoons brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a single-serving casserole dish or smear it with oil.

1. Put the sweet potato slices, beans, and pomegranate arils in a bowl.
2. In another small bowl, combine the juice, maples syrup, and spices. Pour this mixture over the sweet potatoes and stir to make sure that everything is well coated.
3. Plop all the sweet potatoes and their juice into the baking dish. 
4. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Remove the aluminum foil. If the sweet potatoes don’t seem fork-tender, put the uncovered dish back into the oven for 10 minutes.
6. Sprinkle the pecans on top, and sprinkle the brown sugar on top of that. (You thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you?) Spray the top very lightly with olive oil or baking spray and return it to the oven for 10-15 more minutes, until the sweet potatoes are soft and the sugar has caramelized on the top.
7. Serve immediately, maybe with a nice green salad or a bowl of soup. Yummmm!  

Variations:

• You could serve this over rice, noodles, quinoa, or couscous.
• Tempeh or seitan would make a nice protein addition.
• Make extra sauce and marinate some tofu in it. Stir-fry (or waffle fry) the tofu and top the baked dish with it.