Ancho-Lime Sweet Potato Bowls

with zesty rice, bell pepper, corn, pepitas, & creamy chimichurri

Food prep and cooking

Katie:

We skipped the pepitas since I'm not really into big seeds. Before I move into discussing the bulk of the prep, I want to say that I zested a lime. I knew vaguely what to do from years of watching cooking shows. My only mistake was using holes that were too small on our big grater tower. I'm excited by how many firsts we've done in just the past week or so!

I thought the food prep was a little out of order or perhaps we don't have our planning skills as sharp as a regular cooker. The rice was first, getting finished well before the veggies were done roasting. I wound up reading AITA threads to Nick while we were waiting on the veggies to get done roasting.

Nick:

As Katie noted, the order of operations appears backwards with this recipe; you put the rice on for 16 minutes, then prep all the vegetables and roast them for 22 minutes, leaving you 14 minutes to read /r/AmITheAsshole while waiting for the vegetables to finish. Also, we left out the cilantro, because it's more of a garnish and de-branching tiny leaves is a pain in the ass. Overall, not too tough - we didn't even use a sauté pan!

Trust us, this looked more appealing
once we stirred it.

Post-meal thoughts

Katie:

Wow, so much food! At first, I was questioning putting the slaw right in with the rice and roasted veg. It was cold, they were hot. As the bites went, the cabbage softened and I appreciated the break in the heat. I could have done with perhaps some sour cream on the side to take tiny dips into for the heat. The heat was the creeping spread kind that you don't notice until you're well into the dish. I prefer it to the sudden bomb heat that melts away all flavor and makes me feel like a guilty wimp for not being able to finish (what if the server gets in trouble because I didn't like my spicy food???). I thought this was very good and would definitely eat it again.

Nick:

Pretty good! As Katie noted, this is a lot of food; sometimes after one of these I feel like I've just eaten an extra large appetizer, but you get a lot with this meal. Also as Katie noted, I was a bit worried about the slaw going with the rice and the roasted vegetables, but I think it worked out pretty well to lighten the whole dish up. Without it I can imagine all the carby rice, corn, and sweet potatoes getting heavy very quickly. I think the only real problem I had with this was the onion; despite being roasted in the oven at 425 degrees for 22 minutes, it was still pretty chewy, and I could definitely tell a onion-free bite from one with some onion in it. The only real problem I had with this was the onion texture, and to improve this meal I would remove the onion (there's definitely enough vegetables left over to fill you up and then some).

Katie rebuttal:

WRONG. I literally said out loud "oh, I don't agree" when poor Nick was typing the part about the onion. I would argue that perhaps the onion pieces should be smaller and more integrated into the dish rather than in fairly large slices. Okay, the end.

Nick re-rebuttal:

Okay, I think that's an even better idea. The way the instructions had this prepared is, cut the onion in half, then cut it lengthwise into thin strips. If I made this again, I would core the onion, cut it into thin strips vertically, but then also chop it horizontally so you get little onion pieces; that way I wouldn't still be chewing a onion slice five minutes after I was done with the rest of the food. There, we all agree I'm right and I'm not letting Katie have the keyboard back. Let's see if I can hit Tab over to the Publish button.