When I first became vegetarian, I tried to make meatless versions of the dishes I was familiar with, like spaghetti and "meatballs." Over time, I became less interested in replicating traditional meat dishes, and more interested in creating tasty vegetable-based dishes. So, when I saw photo of sweet potato kale balls with pasta at Cupcake Punk recently, I was interested in the sweet potato kale rounds, but a little skeptical about serving the rounds on top of spaghetti.The rounds are made from a mixture of mashed roasted sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, and sautéed garlic and kale (I used chard). While it takes about an hour to caramelize the onions (good instructions here), the caramelized onions really compliment the sweet potatoes. The sweet potato mixture is rolled into rounds, coated in cornmeal, and then baked at 400F for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes.
My one stray from the original recipe was pour a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into the pan that I used to caramelize the onions (after removing then onions and chard), and then add the vinegar and any scrapings from the pan to the sweet potato mixture. I really liked the tanginess of the balsamic vinegar with the sweet potatoes and caramelized onions.
I did decide to go ahead and serve the rounds on top of spaghetti. And, I have to admit, it worked. The rounds are really good with a marinara-type sauce. Also, since the rounds are not that big, the pasta helped make a filling (but not too filling) meal.
The recipe at Cupcake Punk was adapted from a recipe by Jess at Happy Vegan Face. Jess suggested mixing cooked quinoa into the rounds, to make more of a patty. While the rounds are really good with pasta, I also might try experimenting along these lines in the future.
