A Sweet Potato & A Beet Had A Baby - No. 1

And it's a girl!

Welcome to Vegarie, a name that combines my love for vegetables with my name…Valerie! Of course, I didn't come to the name on my own because I am unclever and tend to overthink things like this, letting “perfect be the enemy of the good,” and what not. So, here is the first draft, as it were. The first imperfect step towards something that I hope will grow into a beautiful community of interviews, recipes, and unlikely food stories that bring us all together.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe (while it’s still free!) and each Friday you'll receive at least one plant-based dip recipe meant to help you rethink the way you use vegetables, along with some ideas to spice up other simple dishes you’re already making so that it’s easy to incorporate them into your weekly routine! As we go along, I will feature interviews with friends, family, home-cooks, line-cooks, restauranteurs and bar-owners to find a common thread we all share in our love for food.

Okay, so now for this week's recipe, which is a unique dip combination: sweet potato and beet. This combination was no accident. It was made to dedicate my first post to the person who named my newsletter; someone with a very special place in my heart, who eats beets raw and sweet potato fries by the handful. I cannot count on both hands, toes…other limbs…how many times we've spent searching for the perfect sweet potato fry together—I'll possibly post a ranking system at some point—or ditching plans to dine at a restaurant because they didn’t have them on the menu. My potato pallet wouldn't be half as refined and snobbish without you, and I cannot thank you enough for simply existing. So, this dip is for you and I hope you like it. Maybe you can dip a sweet potato fry into it and create a sort of dip-ception.

Not quite dip-ception…but it’s also great on toast

My time in the kitchen is where I usually cope with stress/anxiety/etc. So, each week you get to be a part of my most cathartic process. I zone out, slowly roam through the grocery store, and wait for the vegetables to start screaming, “Pick me Val! I’d be creamy and delicious as a dip!” …I then worry about myself for about 5 minutes, because I think I’m the only one that hears them. Once the anxiety has passed, I crank tunes in my apartment to come up with a tasty flava of the week. Sometimes the flavor is exceptional, other times it's depressing. Not to say you’ll be able to tell the difference, but the vegetables, they do whisper the answer if you hold them close to your left ear. This week, the sweet potato lends a creamy, thick, and smooth consistency, think hummus-esk. It’s flavorful and a bit acidic, best paired with a goat cheese or something creamy as a counter. It is kissed with dill, lemon, browned shallots, and cayenne if your heart (and tongue) can handle it. No, for real, if you’re someone who thinks black pepper is spicy, maybe skip the cayenne. I’m all about adventure…but Vegarie is really more for creating awareness of your strengths.

Finally, now that I'm done being cute (I always talk about my vegetables in this way,) I want to explain why I'm focusing on dips with Vegarie. There are dip-purists out there who may disagree, but I don't think dip needs to be paired with a dippable. I don't think it's a condiment strictly crafted for bread, crackers or raw vegetables on a platter which is slightly dried out with a white or brown film — I'm looking at you, person who signs up at potlucks to bring a tasteless pile of raw veggies and ranch…yeah you know who you are — but dip can be manipulated to jazz up leftovers, pasta, and other otherwise boring weekly meals that you already make. For example, I make at least one batch of dip a week. I keep half of it in the fridge for late-night snacking classics—pita, crackers, other wild things. And I utilize the other half to reinvent my dishes. I’ll thin some as a sauce for pasta, rice, or meat, or spread it as a thick base under grilled vegetables, tofu, or salad. Let’s expand a bit together, past a classic bean dip (although those will totally be on the list!) and think of dip as a VAST pool of options. A pool that’s warm and creamy, like a spiced butter or jam, a marinade or glaze in the pan. Just imagine that huh — diving into a literal pool of butter. Sounds greasy, but your skin would be so beautifully shiny, maybe soft like a baby… a baby made from sweet potato and beets. She’s pink and I’ll name her Greta.

Anyway, this is all to say that I hope after reading these lil newsletters, your definition of dip will expand.

Other ways to eat this dip outside of crackers and by the spoonful:

• Sourdough toast with baked beets and goat cheese (pictured)

• Mixed into a tuna salad for a sandwich

• Last night I added some extra lemon and used it as a sauce for a pasta with swirly noodles (do those have a name?) and bits of zucchini and onion

What will you use yours on??

Leave a comment below once you've tried it and let me know.

Additionally, if you’d like to submit a question or letter, please email vegarie.content@gmail.com. I will always ask permission before publishing something you wrote to me. 

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Greta - The Sweet Potato & Beet Baby… Recipe

Ingredients:

2 small sweet potatoes

1 medium-sized beet

2 shallots (lightly browned)

1 tbs olive oil

1/4 c greek yogurt or dairy-free yogurt

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 small bundle of dill - plus extra to garnish

1/2 tsp cayenne (more if ya like it real spicy, omit if you think black pepper is too hot)

Salt (to your taste)

only pic I got of the preparations…whoops!

There are two options for preparation below - baking your veg in the oven or air-fryer depending on what you have available in your kitchen, pick one baking route and then continue on with the rest in the food processor.

Preparation (oven):

1. Preheat the oven to 425F/220C.

2. Cut your sweet potato and beets into halves or fourths for quicker baking. Place sweet potato and beet on separate pieces of aluminum foil. Coat each with a thin layer of olive oil and salt and wrap to enclose each.

3. Bake in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until each vegetable is extremely tender. Remove and allow to cool. Once cooled remove skin of sweet potato and beet and set aside.

Preparation (if you’re using an air fryer instead of the oven):

1. Set your air fryer to 375F/190C.

2. Cut your sweet potato and beets into halves or fourths for quicker baking. Line your air fryer with a piece of aluminum foil. Oil is not needed for baking to perfection in the air-fryer, so this is a good choice if you're trying to cut back on oil for some reason.

3. Bake in your air fryer for 15 minutes or until each vegetable is extremely tender. (YES! the air fryer also saves you so much time). Remove and allow to cool. Once cooled remove the skin of the sweet potato and beet and set aside.

Preparation continued, same regardless of cooking method chosen:

1. While the veggies are baking, dice your shallot and lightly brown with a small dash of olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Try not to burn your onions. Once your shallots are lightly browned, remove and set aside. This should only take 2 minutes or so depending on the heat of your stovetop.

2. Once your sweet potatoes and beet have cooled, roughly chop into more manageable pieces for your food processor. Add both to the food processor along with the browned shallots, greek yogurt (or dairy-free yogurt subs), fresh dill, lemon juice, salt, and 1 tbsp olive oil. Process until smooth.

3. Garnish with more fresh dill, would also be good topped with a drizzle of honey if you added extra spice, or crumbled goat cheese.