Yummy! A casserole such as this and I am almost tempted to
become a vegetarian. I had the very last leftover yesterday with steamed green
beans and broccoli for dinner. I didn’t miss the meat. Who would have thought
sweet potato with spinach could taste so good? The original recipe called for more than a cup of whipping cream or double cream. I substituted half of the cream with 1% milk. I knew there would be a pool of liquid in the bottom of the baking dish. There was. Nevertheless it was magnificent! The next day when I heated up the leftovers, the liquid by then fully absorbed by the yam. but it was just as good as the day before.
SWEET POTATO SPINACH BAKE
2 garlic cloves smashed
1 tsp of dried thyme, or 2 fresh sprigs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 bunch of fresh spinach
1 very large sweet potato [mine was 900g]
salt
1 Tbsp flour
butter for greasing or cooking spray
1-1/2 cups of hard cheeses [I used white and orange cheddar]
- Place the garlic, thyme, milk and cream in a small pot and bring to the boil. Immediately remove from heat and let it cool down to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Cut the stems off the spinach.
- Discard the stems and wash the spinach. If the spinach is from the garden, I turn over every leaf and wash it under cold running water. The only protein I will want in this is cheese.
- Chop the sweet potato into manageable segments, peel, rinse, and slice and set aside.
- Place the spinach in a bowl and pour over it a kettle of boiling water.
- Transfer to a colander and let it drain for a few minutes. Then squeeze out as much water as possible and set aside.
- Put the milk mixture through a fine sieve. Discard the thyme sprigs and the garlic cloves.
- Place 1 Tbsp of flour in a small bowl and very gradually stir in the milk mixture stirring continuously. Set aside.
- Butter a medium sized casserole dish.
- Lay half the sweet potato slices in the dish. Ever so lightly sprinkle with salt.
- Cover with the fully drained spinach leaves and very lightly sprinkle with salt.
- Top with the remaining sweet potato slices. [The cheese layer will be salty so I didn’t sprinkle the top with salt.]
- Pour the milk mixture on the sweet potato slices.
- Grate the cheese on the top sealing the edges.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cover for 10 minutes before serving.
- Serves 6-8. The leftovers are nice reheated.
