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When I first looked through River Cottage Veg Everyday after getting it as a gift from my best friend for Christmas, I knew immediately which recipe I just had to make:

Sweet Potato? Peanut Butter? Hell yes! However the main ingredient in this after sweet potatoes is double cream, not exactly vegan friendly, so I decided to do a Laura version of the recipe. I changed up some of the flavours adding ginger along with the garlic and extra chilli instead of the lime, using silken tofu to replace the cream and because I’m such a fan of the sweet potato and almond butter combo, switching up the nut butters.

While this is still a rather rich recipe, the omission of the oil and cream from the original recipe reduces the amount of fat, and the inclusion of the tofu brings some protein to the party to balance out the carbs from the potatoes. A healthy makeover indeed!

Spicy Sweet Potato and Almond Butter Gratin (Adapted from Sweet Potato and Peanut Gratin: River Cottage Cook Veg Everyday, vegan, serves 2)

• Approximately 500g of sweet potatoes
• 1/2 block of mori nu silken tofu
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp of finely chopped red chilli (I used lazy chilli from a jar)
• 2 tbsp of almond butter (add a little salt if your nut butter is unsalted)
• salt and pepper

Pre heat the oven to 190c. Begin by making the tofu cream – blend the silken tofu in a food processor or blender with 1/2 a cup of water and combine with the ginger, garlic and chilli. Peel the potatoes and slice into thin rounds about 2-3 mm thick. Add the potatoes to the tofu cream along with some salt and pepper and mix well.

In a separate bowl mix the almond butter with 2 tbsp of hot water until smooth.

Grease a baking dish (I used two individual ones) and fill half full with the sweet potatoes. Spoon the almond butter on top:

Layer on the rest of the sweet potatoes pouring on any remaining tofu cream in the bowl.

Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes then remove the foil and bake for another 40 minutes. The potatoes should be tender and browned on the top. Serve!

This is rich, sweet and spicy with a lovely hit of salty creaminess from the almond butter. The topping becomes slightly crispy and caramelised, so good! Due to the ginger, garlic and chilli this has quite an Asian flavour and would go really well with some stir fried veggies like broccoli or a fresh green salad. Obviously this isn’t as creamy as the original recipe would have been, but you could add more of the tofu cream if you wanted a more creamy result.

Delish!

Are you a fan of the sweet potato and nut butter combo?