This has become a Fall and holiday tradition in my house. But it's so dang good, I like to serve it with baked fish, BBQ, and baked chicken/turkey year round! Pic can be seen here: http://buttoni.wordpress.com/2009/0...sweet-potatoes/

CHIPOTLE "SWEET POTATOES" (pumpkin)

I clipped this recipe out of a newspaper years ago. I have never been very fond of sweet potatoes, unless baked into pies, cakes and muffins. But ever since finding this recipe ( which I found not only good………… it’s the only way I’ll eat sweet potatoes as a side dish), I eat them year round! This is NOT your granny’s traditional sweet potatoes. Chipotle peppers are highly smoked jalapenos and taste nothing like green jalapeno peppers. They, in combination with the lime zest add a most unique “twist” to this popular vegetable dish.

I find this rendition is very tasty with baked seafood, grilled meats, game, Texas-style BBQ and of course the proverbial holiday turkey or fowl. The flavor combination of lime, smoky chipotles and maple extract (substituted for brown sugar in the original recipe) is a real winner! To make this dish ANA acceptable, I have substituted 100% fresh cooked pumpkin flesh for the sweet potatoes. Could hardly tell a difference, other than the color is more golden than orange, thus the addition of red food coloring to correct color aesthetics. Once you reach the starchy veggie rung of OWL, I would recommend just using only 1½ lb. pumpkin and adding 1 lb. cooked sweet potato for both flavor, color and smoother texture. You will need to adjust nutritional info if you make that change.

INGREDIENTS:

2½ lb. cooked fresh pumpkin (wouldn't recommend canned)
½ c. heavy cream
4 T. butter
¼ tsp. salt
2 T. fresh lime juice
zest of 1 large lime (2 if they are small)
½ c. granular Splenda
1 tsp. maple extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (canned)
6-8 drops red food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

Cut a small 4-5 lb. pumpkin in half. Remove seeds (you can roast them for eating BTW) and turn cut side down into baking pan. Fill pan with 1″ water and bake pumpkin at 350º until tender when fork is stuck into it (about 45 minutes). Remove and cool enough to handle. Scoop/scrape the pumpkin flesh out of skin/shell and weigh out 2½ lb of pumpkin for recipe (freeze any remaining for future baking use). Whip pumpkin with electric mixer or food processor to get it as smooth as possible. Add all remaining ingredients except chipotle peppers. These little skoagies are HOT, so special handling is required. Either wear plastic gloves (homemade “sandwich bag gloves” will do) or be sure you wash your hands very well after handling. Take 1 chipotle pepper (1½ long) out of the can. Rinse, and remove seeds and ribs with a knife. Finely mash/chop the pepper almost into a puree on a flat surface. Add to mixture, stir well and taste to see if this is hot enough. You don’t want to get this dish too hot, but a little tingle on the tongue is what you’re looking for. If you want even more smoky taste or a hotter dish, carefully repeat with ½ pepper more, retasting, and ½ pepper more if you like things way hot (I don’t). If you add pepper in stages like this, you won’t ruin the whole batch getting it too hot (I did one time). Never forget others at the table may not like things as hot as YOU do!

Stir well and pour into buttered glass baking dish. Sprinkle with a dash more cinnamon and bake at 350º for 20-30 minutes.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving contains:

114 calories
7.6 g fat
12.0 g carbs
4.0 g fiber
2.0 g protein
121 mg. sodium
8 g NET CARBS