There's A New Grill In Town

We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary, though we've been together 18 years. But who's counting?


To commemorate the occasion, we purchased a new barbecue grill "for us from us." It's a great looking new outdoor toy, I must say, but it came in a box and was accompanied by a booklet outlining 20 steps. The first of which was "get a helper!" Yikes!


We put the grill together in just over an hour and a half and had only one leftover screw. There was no fighting, yelling, screaming and just a little cursing. All in all, a very pleasant experience.

As you can guess, we have been grilling quite a bit to test the new pit out. The night we put it together, we grilled a gorgeous slab of salmon. 

When we brought home several sweet potatoes from the farmers market last Sunday, I thought we should do something a little different. Since it's too hot to "bake" anything these days, we opted for grilling them.


On the Quarry Farmers & Ranchers Market website, I feature a listing of recipes that is organized by seasons. The summer recipe page includes recipes for tomatoes, peaches, zucchini, cucumbers, melons, onions, 4th of July menu ideas, No-Cook summer recipes, eggplant, okra, yellow squash, sweet potatoes and pastured chicken. Each ingredient and the selected recipes are first featured in our weekly enewsletter and then I add it to the website.


I readily admit that I haven't tried all of the recipes suggested, though many do come from this blog, as well as some of my other favorite and trusted sites such as epicurious.com, simplyrecipes.com, davidlebovitz.com among others. When I included the recipe for grilled sweet potatoes with a lime-cilantro vinaigrette, I put it on my list of "things-to-make."


Now that we have a brand new grill and sweet potatoes are in season, it was a great excuse to make this recipe featuring the orange-fleshed root vegetable.


I think the grilled sweet potatoes would combine well with grilled pork tenderloin, pork chops, flank steak or even steak. The lime-cilantro vinaigrette was really nice and something that could easily be used as a dressing for meat, too. Add a salad of mixed greens with avocado and it's a winning combination.


Buen provecho!

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime-Cilantro Vinaigrette
The Cowgirl Gourmet adapted this recipe from Epicurious.com where it was featured in the August 2008 issue of Gourmet


Print recipe


The vinaigrette makes this dish, so be generous with the dressing. Top each sliced potato with a bit of kosher salt, too. Serve with grilled meat and a salad with avocado, as both the meat and avocado combine beautifully with the lime-cilantro vinaigrette.


Serves 8


2 lbs. sweet potatoes, preferably organic and long
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup cilantro

Cover potatoes with cold salted water in a large pot, then bring to a boil. Simmer until slightly resistant in center when pierced with a sharp small knife, 25 to 30 minutes, then transfer to a large bowl of cold water to stop cooking. 

Drain well. When cool enough to handle, slice lengthwise.

Prepare grill for cooking.

Whisk together lime juice, salt, and pepper and add oil in a slow stream, whisking and then stir in cilantro.

When fire is hot (you can hold your hand 5 inches above rack for 1 to 2 seconds), grill potatoes in 2 or 3 batches on lightly oiled grill rack (over coals if using a charcoal grill), uncovered, turning, until grill marks appear and potatoes are just tender, 3 to 6 minutes total.

Serve potatoes warm or at room temperature, drizzled with vinaigrette and sprinkled with kosher or Maldon salt.

Cooks' notes:

• Potatoes can be boiled one day ahead and chilled, covered.
• Vinaigrette can be made 2 hours ahead and kept at room temperature.
• If you aren't able to grill, potatoes can be cooked in a well-seasoned ridged grill pan over moderately high heat, turning, until grill marks appear, 3 to 6 minutes total.