Sweet Potato Kugel

This is a Jewish dish that I discovered (and tweaked) this past November. It's a delicious and healthy meal that I personally enjoy eating cold in the days afterwards. I suggest being liberal with the cinnamon. Enjoy!

SWEET POTATO KUGEL

5 lbs. sweet potatoes (about 8 cups)

2 apples (I use cameo apples, but any crisp apple is good)

6 eggs

1 cup raisins (You could also use dates. Just chop them and skip soaking.)

½ cup orange juice (or the juice of one orange)

½ cup walnuts, crushed to small pieces

½ cup pecan halves

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

¾ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cloves

butter for greasing (I've used Pam before and it works just fine)

1) Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x12 cake pan with butter.

2) In a small bowl, soak the raisins in orange juice, adding water so the raisins are covered. (You can speed up the plumping by microwaving for 30-45 seconds.)

3) Peel the sweet potatoes. Using a grater blade on a food processor or a box grater, grate them. Put the grated sweet potatoes in a large mixing bowl.

4) Beat the eggs (The fluffier they are, the fluffier your kugel). Mix into sweet potatoes.

5) Grate the apples, add to the sweet tater & egg mixture.

6) Stir in the salt and spices.

7) Add the raisins and soaking liquids. Stir.

8) Pour/scoop mixture into your cake pan, smoothing flat.

9) Sprinkle with pecans and walnuts, pressing them a little into the kugel.

10) Bake 45 minutes or so, until the edges are a little browned and the top gets golden. Let it cool a bit, then cut into 24 pieces, but know that everyone will probably want more than one.

Calculations

TOTAL: 3936 calories, 111g fat, 93.1g fiber, $10.59

PER SERVING (TOTAL/24): 164 calories, 4.6g fat, 3.9g fiber, $0.44

PER (LARGER) SERVING (TOTAL/12): 328 calories, 9.3g fat, 7.8g fiber, $0.88

Quick bread recipe

This is the ultimate quick bread recipe, in my opinion. It's called "Zucchini Bread", but today I didn't have zucchini, so I decided to use applesauce instead. Figures I wouldn't have applesauce either, so I dug out some frozen mashed pears, peeled and chopped up a granny smith apple into it, and called it good enough. And it was good enough!

Oh, and your mouth will thank you to let the bread sit for a few minutes before devouring. Apple chunks get pretty hot... :-/

3 Eggs
1 c Vegetable Oil
2/3 c Sugar
2 c Grated zucchini (or whatever)
2 t Vanilla extract
1 t Salt
1/4 t Baking powder
3 c All-purpose flour
1 t Baking soda
3 t Ground cinnamon (optional, but strongly suggested)
Fresh-ground nutmeg (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 8X4 inch loaf pans. In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, and sugar together. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into egg mixture. Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few little crumbs left. Let cool as long as possible before you or a family member devour it.

You can ruin it with 1/2 c chopped walnuts if you absolutely must.