Sweet potato pho

I was surfing the web last night while blogging and saw a contest for the best sweet potato recipe, and you have to blog about it in order to win. Since I'm always looking for challenges and ways to keep dinner and this blog fresh, I decided to take them up on the bet.

I went through the easy uses of sweet potatoes. Gnocchi. Can I do anything original to that? Likely not. Maybe I could turn them into a pizza, or maybe use them as lasagna. Dozens of recipes for each all over the web. I had to come up with a non-traditional use for the deliciousness of a sweet potato that would take it in a different direction.

Pho. I'm a big fan (phan?) of pho, as evident from the other blog entries devoted to it, and as evident from my wife's saying "you're making pho again?" when I told her what was for dinner. I figured I could replace the creaminess of the coconut milk I sometimes put into the pho with pureed sweet potato, adding another level of flavor, and some good nutrition to boot.

Thinking of the spices that work well with sweet potatoes, I thought Thai seasonings would pair nicely with it. And as it turns out, it did work pretty well. The key was to keep the pho from getting too thick from the puree, and to put a good balance of acid in there against the natural flavors of the sweet potato. All in all, it was a pretty darn good dish.

Recipe as follows:

1 lb shrimp, shell on and deveined (360 calories)

1 tbsp coconut oil (substitute sesame or canola if you don't have coconut oil, 120 calories)

1/2 cup diced carrot (25 calories)

1/4 sweet onion

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

1 large stalk lemongrass, minced
2 tbsp chopped kaffir lime leaves (optional)

3 fresh curry leaves (substitute 1 tsp curry powder)

2 cups vegetable stock (or seafood stock)

4 cups water

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced (150 calories)

2 servings spaghetti (400 calories)

1 cup sliced mushrooms (15 calories)

2 large jalapeno peppers, sliced (more or less as you dare)

2 cups mustard greens, roughly chopped in large pieces

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, torn

1 tbsp thai basil, chiffonaded (optional)

1 tbsp Sriacha hot sauce (substitute Tabasco or omit)

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1/2 tbsp agave nectar (substitute honey, 30 calories)

juice of 1 lime

Sautee the shrimp in coconut oil on high heat in a deep sided pan until just barely cooked, turning once, about 2 minutes a side. Remove from pan, and remove from the shells. Caramelize carrots in pan until they just start to brown, remove and reserve. Add onion, ginger, lemongrass, and curry leaves, and sautee until they start to brown a little, making sure nothing in the pan starts to burn. Deglaze with stock and water, and stir to get the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan. Add diced sweet potato and lime leaves, and boil covered until tender, about 10-15 minutes.

With an immersion blender blend the soup until smooth - add more water if too thick - you want it to have a brothy consistency, not thick like a traditional sweet potato soup. Add pasta and cook per package directions, about 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and jalapenos at this time. When there is about 5 minutes left on the pasta, add the mustard greens and cooked carrots. With about 2 minutes left add the cooked shrimp, herbs, vinegar, soy sauce, hot sauce, agave, and lime juice. Taste soup for balance - add soy sauce, hot sauce, herb, and acid (more vinegar or lime) as desired. Serve immediately after the pasta is fully cooked. About 550 calories per serving, serves two very large bowls.

On the exercise front, today my wife wanted to do Tabada with me, so we did. She is a much better athlete than I am, so it would be a good test for me to see what it did to her. We did burpees, step ups, pushups, and some pilates poses she had been doing. It was difficult for her, and she is under the impression she got a good workout, which is good validation for me to be sure.