A Few of My Favorite Things

Since I'm just cooking for one, I have the luxury of indulging in all of my own food cravings and favorite ingredients.  There's a long list of foods/spices that I'm moderately obsessed with (salsa, ginger, black beans, and water chestnuts, to name a few), some of which you can probably figure out from reading my blog.  Two of my favorite foods - sweet potatoes and garlicky, sauteed, dark, leafy greens - I'd never thought to combine.  Well, I used Whole Living's Sweet Potato with Kale and Ricotta recipe to bring them together, and it was an unexpected treat.

This recipe serves 4, so I only made approximately 1/4 of it.

4 sweet potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 bunch kale, rinsed and cut from the stems
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup low fat ricotta cheese

Cook the potatoes in the microwave.  Meanwhile, saute the garlic with the olive oil in a skillet for about a minute.  Set garlic aside.

Begin cooking the kale in the skillet, adding more as it cooks down.  Add salt and pepper if desired.  After all the kale has cooked down, add the balsamic vinegar and the pepper flakes.  Stir.

Cut open the sweet potatoes, and stuff them with the kale and ricotta cheese. Sprinkle the garlic on top.

I've never used balsamic vinegar before, but it was absolutely delicious with the kale.  I highly recommend trying the kale and balsamic vinegar portion of the recipe, even without the rest of the meal.  Also: yes, the kale and potato were great, but the ricotta lacked flavor, so perhaps a different type of cheese would be better.