Soy-glazed Sweet Potatoes
The standard orange sweet potato was a common accompaniment for meals in my home, especially during the fall season. Over the past couple years though, they have been fading and the Japanese sweet potato has been taking their place. This spud has a more subtle sweetness than the orange variety, and flesh that's a bit more firm, making it more versatile. More importantly, it's one that both my wife and I equally love, while the creamy, soft flesh of orange sweet potatoes are more of my jam than hers. One side advantage of this change has been new avenues of recipe exploration, and after a really amazing recipe that paired these tubers with a miso butter, I have another really amazing savory-sweet option to share with y'all—soy-glazed Japanese sweet potates.
There's a whole world of sweet potatoes and yams out there to explore, but there's good reason why both the orange variety and the Japanese are the most ubiquitous in my house—they're both readily available nearby. While my standard grocery seems to be flush with orange spuds all year, the same goes for Japanese sweet potatoes at the local Asian market. These potatoes differ by having a purple exterior with a yellow flesh that is more firm and starchier, along with a sweetness that's less sugary tasting than the orange variety. Those traits actually make them even better for grilling and using them for savory-sweet recipes like this one.
And with a glaze whose base was soy sauce, I knew the salty/savory factor of the final dish would be dialed up to eleven. Soy sauce alone would be a little too harsh though, so to form a more balanced glaze, I watered it down and added a couple of sweeteners along with garlic and sesame oil. All of these were simmered into a medium-thick glaze that would have a good coating consistency without being overly gloppy.
To prep the spuds, I first scrubbed them clean and cut them into roughly one and a half inch chunks. I then coated them with oil and seasoned them with black pepper and just a little salt, knowing that I had to go easy there since the glaze would deliver plenty of salt in the end.
I set the sweet potatoes on the grill over indirect high heat, covered, and let them roast. I checked on them every ten minutes or so and moved ones that were browning and cooking faster further from the fire, and the ones cooking slower closer to the fire as needed. This helped them all be done around the same time, and I tested that doneness by piercing the largest chunks with a paring knife and seeing if it went through the entire potato with no resistance.
I loaded the hot potatoes into a large bowl, poured in the glaze, and tossed to coat. This would have been a fraught task with those orange spuds because they get so soft that they easily break down in this scenario, but the firmer Japanese sweet potatoes held up just fine and were in great shape when I transferred them to a serving bowl and applied a finishing garnish of scallions and sesame seeds.
There's something magical with the melding of salty, savory sauces with the Japanese sweet potato. I think their distinct sweetness really allows more flavor packed sauces to find a great balance, which was on full display in this dish. As I hoped, the glaze didn't coat the potatoes too heavily, giving them a good salty and savory soy sauce flavor without it becoming overwhelming. The sesame oil and seeds came through and added important roasted and nutty note that tasted at home with the soy sauce and sweetness of the tubers. As I ate these, I was just thinking of more ways to dress up Japanese spuds in future endeavors, and if my history of years upon years of orange sweet potato creations are any indication, there's going to be a lot more of these types of recipes to come.
