Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Maple-Sage Butter Recipe

Not Your Mother's Thanksgiving

When I was a little girl, the time from Halloween through New Year's was always the most exciting. It meant more time with my older siblings, who had gone off to college by the time I was 10, and plenty of great food and celebrations. And of course, my birthday falls during that period—another reason for a party.

I never outgrew this excitement. To make it even crazier, both of our daughters were born between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yippee! A swarm of Sagittarians!

Like me, our daughters love the holidays, and Thanksgiving is definitely at the top of the list. So, we've established our own traditions. While we experiment with recipes throughout the year, our Thanksgiving menu stays the same.

The Perfect Formula

After many years, we've "perfected" our Thanksgiving dinner formula, blending dishes from my mother's table, my own experiments, and new recipes we've tried until we found what works for our November crew.

The "throwbacks" from my mom’s Thanksgiving are the mashed potatoes, peas, and onions straight from the freezer bag. Over the years, I've tried adding sour cream, crème fraîche, truffle oil, and sautéed leeks to the potatoes, but I still mash them with the wire masher I inherited from my mom. It's an oldie but a goodie.

Last year, I realized I was picking the onions out of the pea/onion combo on my plate, so this year, I’m simplifying by just cooking the peas—straight from the bag—easiest thing on the menu.

Mom also used to serve dinner rolls, a kind I can't find anymore. The closest I’ve seen are called "Hawaiian" rolls. They were perfectly slathered with butter, and I’d use the leftovers for mini-turkey sandwiches with slices of canned cranberry sauce.

While the canned cranberry sauce was delicious, it’s no longer part of our menu. As much as I love it on my sandwiches the next day, no one else eats it. Now, we serve two types of muffins—cornbread and cranberry-orange.

One other throwback, tangentially, is the staple winter fruit bowl recipe I always make in advance and have on hand on Thanksgiving morning because that's the way it's always been for as long as I can remember.  And it's such an indulgence…..

The recipe from my own experimentation that has carried forward is a fresh orange-cranberry sauce adapted from The Vegetarian Epicure, one of my first cookbooks from my college days.  I made it once to bring it to a Friendsgiving and it keeps making the cut year after year.

The Reluctant Gourmet has become the local expert on our turkey, which he prepares in the style of Julia Child, aka deconstructed turkey. We mostly prefer dark meat, so we pick up a couple of extra turkey legs at the butcher so there is plenty to go around.  This is now another Thanksgiving keeper.

Two other dishes that have secured their spot on the table are both veggie sides: roasted Brussels sprouts with wild mushrooms and cream, and roasted sweet potatoes with apples and maple sage butter, adapted from Fine Cooking magazine.

Both are 1) easy and 2) sound exotic—the perfect combination. I’m particularly fond of the sweet potatoes. They’re a significant upgrade from the canned candied sweet potatoes my mom used to serve—complete with marshmallow topping. Plus, I get to use some of the sage from my garden, which makes it even more special.

Sage

I've been growing sage in our herb garden for as long as I can remember. It comes back every year, slowly adding a bit more to its size. If only my culinary uses for fresh sage were as abundant!

I usually stick to the classic "sautéing sage in butter" to flavor the butter and make the sage crispy for topping dishes, or adding it to any dish with sausage. But overall, I haven’t been very inventive with it. Enter this Thanksgiving side.

Ingredients for Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Maple-Sage Butter

This dish has just a few ingredients: sweet potatoes, Granny Smith apples, fresh sage, lemon juice, and maple syrup. The steps are simple: slice and roast the potatoes, sauté the apples with sage, and stir in the lemon juice and maple syrup.

The tricky part is finding 15 minutes of oven space at 475°F. Not always easy on Thanksgiving, but somehow we manage by saving it for the end. I pop it in while RG finishes slicing the turkey. Inevitably, it all comes together.

We'll miss our usual Thanksgiving guests, both family and strays, and look forward to gathering again in 2021. But for now, we’ll use fewer sweet potatoes. Have a safe, happy, and delicious holiday!

📖 Recipe

Print Recipe

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with apples and Maple-Sage Butter

A great side dish for Thanksgiving

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: potatoes

Servings: 6 people

Equipment

• Skillet

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes peeled, halved crosswise and cut like steak fries into wedges
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large granny smith apple cored, halved crosswise and cut into wedges
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage chopped
• 1½ teaspoon maple syrup

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 475°F.
• Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread them on a cookie sheet in a single layer. 
• Roast in the top half of the oven for 10 minutes, then flip and roast for another 5 minutes.
• While the potatoes are roasting, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat until it starts to brown, about 1 minute. 
• Add the apples in a single layer and brown on both sides, about 90 seconds per side. 
• Then add the chopped sage and stir until wilted, about another 30 seconds. 
• Remove from heat and fold in the lemon juice and maple syrup.  Scrape them into a serving bowl with a spatula and gently combine the roasted potatoes. 
• Serve immediately. 

Some of My Favorite Thanksgiving Posts