Have you ever tried grilling sweet potatoes? It’s quick and easy. You just peel the sweet potatoes, slice them into 1/4-inch slices, paint them with olive oil, sprinkle on some salt, and place on a hot grill. To serve, you want to slather them with some sort of vinaigrette—olive oil to keep them from tasting too dry, and an acid like lime juice or lemon juice to balance the sweetness of the sweet potatoes. We played around a bit with this recipe, after thinking we had “discovered” the wonderful combination of lime, cilantro, and sweet potatoes, only to find out many others have made a similar discovery. It’s a great combination. You can substitute lemon juice for the lime, lime is better but lemon juice will work. And you can substitute parsley for the cilantro, especially if you are one for whom cilantro tastes like soap. Otherwise stick with the cilantro, in our opinion, it just works better here than the parsley. We’ve also tried adding some minced garlic to the dressing, but I prefer it without it.
Grilled Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Add to shopping list
INGREDIENTS
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes
- 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
- Kosher salt
Dressing
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (including tender stems)
- 1 teaspoon of lime zest or lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons of fresh lime or lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Pinch of salt
METHOD
1 Prepare your grill for hot, direct heat. While the grill is heating up, peel the sweet potatoes and slice lengthwise, or on a diagonal, into 1/4 inch-thick pieces. Coat the sweet potato slices with olive oil and lightly sprinkle with Kosher salt.
2 Combine all of the dressing ingredients into a small bowl.
3 Once the grill is hot, lay the sweet potato pieces down onto the grill grates. Cover the grill and cook until each side gets some grill marks, between 3-6 minutes for each side, depending on how hot your grill is.
4 Toss the sweet potatoes in a bowl with the dressing and serve hot.