by Mo Karnage
This is a dish I learned to make 6 or 7 years ago. Originally, to my knowledge, my friend Pablo invented this dish. But he never wrote down the recipe, and I have repeatedly re-worked it over the years. So here is my version, with thanks to Pablo. What’s great about this recipe is that you can make it and it will be vegan and gluten free and high fructose corn syrup free with no weird specialty foods needed. I’ve been cooking it a lot lately for family dinners at the Wingnut Anarchist Collective in Richmond, VA. We also recently made it with Food Not Bombs for an event we were catering. You can eat this plain, or in wraps with rice, or on bread for sandwitches etc. I personally prefer recipes with lots of room for customization.
Pulled Sweet Potato Bar-B-Que Wraps
Serves 4-6 people (depending on the size of the potatoes) (with leftovers duh yummy)
You will need: a cheese grater, knife, cutting board, pot, large frying pan, pot or rice maker, etc.
For the dish
4 sweet potatoes
2 yellow onions (or more to taste)
1 head of garlic
1 bag of spinach
1 pack of tortillas
3 cups of rice
vegetable oil
bar-b-que sawce – You can buy store bought sauce if you want. But I highly recommend making your own. Typically I don’t use a recipe for my bar-b-que sawce. I make mine from memory and taste as I go. And we all know bar-b-que is a helluva personal, important thing. North carolina style is very vinegary, other styles are very mole-asses or ketchup based. I combine them all for the best flavors. To make my bar-b-que sawce you will need
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (I recommend Braggs) (other vinegars can work, I just prefer apple cider)
1/4 cup molasses
salt, pepper, cayenne, chili powder, bbq rubs, seasoning salt, garlic powder, onion powder
4 tablespoons whole grain mustard
1 small can tomato paste or more if you like a super tomatoey sawce
water
ketchup w/out high fructose corn syrup – not necessary if you use more tomato paste or like a more vinegar based bbq
Step 1- Put rice on, however you prefer, stovetop or rice maker. You can pretty much use whatever type of rice you prefer for this as well. Go wild.
Step 2- Start shredding the sweet potatoes on a cheese grater. You are making shreds of sweet potatoes, similar to hash browns, and resembling pulled pork bar-b-que. Shredding potatoes on a grater is hard work and can make your arm super sore. Trick a friend into doing it! (they’ll be happy to have helped when they get to eat it)
Step 3- Dice the 2 onions and garlic to taste, put in a sauce pan with some oil to simmer.
Step 4- Once the garlic and onions have started to carmelize, begin to add in the other sauce ingredients. How thick, how spicy, how sweet, how vinegary your sauce ends up is up to you. Keep tasting it as you let the sauce simmer. Add ingredients as you see fit. If you have and bbq rubs or similar spices you might want to add those too.
Step 5- Put all your shredded pulled sweet potato in a frying pan with some vegetable oil and start frying it. Once its about half way as soft as you want the potatoes, add in the bbq sauce! You want to have enough sauce to keep all the sweet potatoes well lubed. If you realize you made too little sauce you can always bulk the sauce up as you go, throwing in more vinegar/molasses/ketchup/etc. Just keep tasting it and try to keep it to the ratio you like. If you make lots and lots of yummy sauce you can have extra for people to add to their wraps as they prefer.
Step 6- Once you have the rice and sweet potatoes cooked, assemble burritos with raw spinach, rice, and bbq in tortillas. Or eat it however you like. It is very deeelicious.
Variations- add tofu cubes or carrot shreds into sweet potato bbq mix. Or use jalopenos in the sauce, with the potato pulls, or raw in the wraps.
Hope you eat up in good spirits with good company and use the energy to do positive things!
Step 7- Smash the patriarchy and tear down capitalism!
Profane Existence 