Roasted Pears and Sweet Potatoes (with salad idea)

Serves 4
Recipe from Everyday Food Magazine
Husband-Tested in Alice’s Kitchen

Here’s a delicious and healthy alternative to the syrupy, marshmallow encrusted sweet potato that is often served this time of year. Sweet potatoes and pears are naturally sweet and roasting them makes them even sweeter, so who needs marshmallows? One serving of this side dish has 7.6 grams of fiber. We ate half and then used the other half on a salad of spinach, blue cheese, walnuts and scallions. Yum! (Goat cheese and pecans would work too.)

2 sweet potatoes, sliced 1½ inches thick (I cut the potatoes into small chunks.)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon cayenne
Coarse salt
2 Bartlett pears, cored, quartered, and halved (You could also substitute apples for the pears.) (I cut the pears into small chunks.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub 2 sweet potatoes. Quarter lengthwise; slice diagonally 1½ inches thick. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss slices with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, and ¼ teaspoon cayenne; season with coarse salt. Roast, tossing occasionally, until crisp-tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

Core and quarter 2 Bartlett pears; halve crosswise. Add to the potatoes; toss all with another tablespoon oil. Continue roasting until potatoes are fork-tender, about 10 minutes more.

Per serving: 333 calories; 11.2 g fat; 3.4 g protein; 57.4 g carb; 7.6 g fiber