Want to rethink your Thanksgiving feast by revamping a typical casserole with sweet potatoes?
We asked celebrated Houston chef and restaurateur Hugo Ortega to channel his culinary identity through a traditional side dish.
Ortega remembers his first Thanksgiving, in the 1980s, with his then girlfriend, Tracy Vaught: “The sweet potatoes had marshmallows on them,” he says. “I thought, ‘Weird.’”
Three decades later, Ortega and Vaught are married, and their table still includes that classic casserole, alongside this traditional preparation from Ortega’s native Mexico City. Instead of sweet-on-sweet, the natural sugars are balanced by salt, tang, and umami.
Try this camotes (sweet potato) with salsa macha recipe. Your Thanksgiving is about to get a lot more interesting.
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Makes 6 servings
Prep time
15 min.
Cook time
75 min.
Ingredients
- For Salsa Macha:
- 3 medium tomatoes, halved
- 2 tsp corn oil
- 16 dried chile de árbol peppers, toasted
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small can chipotle peppers in adobo, seeded and deveined
- 1 cup roasted peanuts
- 1⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp lard (or olive oil)
- 11⁄2 tsp kosher salt
- For Camotes:
- 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and halved lengthwise
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1⁄2 tsp kosher salt
- Crema fresca, for serving
- Salsa macha, for serving
- Blue cheese, for serving
How to make it