Roasted Sweet Potato and Chorizo Lettuce Wraps
12For the longest time, I (thought I) didn’t like sweet potatoes. It really had more to do with common preparations—like dousing them in everything from brown sugar to cinnamon to marshmallows—that turned me off. When made savory, I actually love sweet potatoes, and that probably holds truest in Tex-Mex type meals. I am also a firm believer that chorizo makes just about everything better, which is why I pinned these wraps so long ago. And I’m so sad it took me this long to make this meal, because it was pretty awesome.
I loved these. Loved them. The only bad thing was that they were *really* messy, but a lot of that has to do with the lettuce we used, which didn’t make particularly good wraps (blame it on my grocery store, which has a million bizarre and harder to find produce items, but not much in the way of lettuce varietals). I’m not normally a lettuce wrap kinda gal, but I really like it in this application because you already have the starchy potatoes. I see a lot of sweet potato burrito recipes and, while they sound good, it also sort of sounds like carb overload. These strike a nice balance.
Rather than serve these with the cilantro cream sauce (because, as you probably know, I hate cilantro), I made the same avocado cream sauce I use with my black bean patties (which, as a bonus, Zachary will shovel into his mouth like any ol’ yogurt). This complemented the wraps beautifully—a nice, bright counterpart to the slightly spicy filling. We had some leftover goat cheese so half the wraps got the goat cheese treatment and the other half the feta treatment. Personally, I was a bigger fan of the goat cheese, I think, but both work really well. All the components of this dish make it a little spicy, a little sweet, a little salty, a little crispy, and a lot of awesome.
Roasted Sweet Potato and Chorizo Lettuce Wraps
Adapted from Perry’s Plate
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
2.5 Tbsp. canola oil, divided
ground cumin
chili powder
salt
1 cup corn (fresh or thawed from frozen)
1 small onion, diced
3/4 lb. Mexican chorizo, casings removed*
Juice from 1/2 lime
Cilantro to taste
1 head leaf lettuce (butter, Bibb, etc.), leaves separated
1 cup crumbled feta or goat cheese
1/2 batch Avocado cream sauce
Preheat the oven to 450. Toss the sweet potato cubes along with oil, cumin, chili powder, and salt to taste on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 10 minutes, then stir in the corn and roast for an additional 10 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender and the corn is slightly golden.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1/2 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion until tender, and then stir in the chorizo. Crumble the chorizo and cook until done, about 5 minutes.* Add the sweet potato mixture, lime juice, and cilantro to the skillet and stir until well combined. Place in a serving bowl.
To assemble, put about 2 Tbsp. of the filling into a lettuce leaf and top with a little bit of avocado cream and feta or goat cheese.
*Mexican chorizo is not cured like Spanish chorizo. It’s typically found uncooked in bulk or sold in a casing. However, there is pre-cooked Mexican chorizo that looks very much like regular sausage. I used uncooked chorizo, which tends to be a bit greasier, so I drained the chorizo/onion mixture on paper towels before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. Pre-cooked chorizo can usually just be diced, rather than crumbled into the skillet, and just needs to brown, since it’s already cooked thoroughly.
So happy you liked these! I had the same experience with sweet potatoes. Not a fan of all the brown sugar and marshmallows. 🙂 Thanks for linking up!
We really did! I made your goat cheese lovers burgers recently and they were also fabulous. 🙂
Oh yum! We must be kindred spirits in goat cheese. 🙂
We love sweet potatoes and are always looking for a new method of preparation. This looks AMAZING!
This was one of my favorite recipes, too! Of course, I actually LOVE sweet potatoes of all preparations…:). I’m going to be sharing a Beef and Sweet Potato Stew tomorrow in case you need more savory inspiration!
I love lettuce wraps at my favourite restaurant.
Chorizo and sweet potato?….mmmmmm!!! What a great idea for wraps…bookmarking this! Thanks Elly!
This looks so delicious! I have not tried chorizo and sweet potatoes together, but I love the idea of the sweet and salty together!
I pinned these from Natalie forever ago also! And also spent most of my life thinking I hate sweet potatoes…but how wrong I was. The mix of sweet and spicy in these must be fabulous!
I hadn’t really thought of putting the two together, but I see no reason why sweet potato and chorizo wouldn’t be the best of friends. I agree on the sweet potato burrito comment, I love myself a carb, but too much carb on carb can be a bad thing. Lettuce wraps were a smart idea!
I can’t imagine anything with sweet potatoes, chorizo, and avocado would be less than amazing! I love when you post recipes like this because we are so on the same wavelength here. Except for the cilantro. I love me some cilantro.
Love this! I know it has to be delicious. Very creative!