To be honest, it’s hard not to get inspired by hasselback potatoes, those deliciously crisp and creamy potatoes that are thinly sliced so they fan out accordion-style during roasting. The edges take on lovely french fry qualities, while the insides stay moist and tender. Add a serious splash of butter or oil and they can be pretty heavenly.
But we decided to take them in a different direction for grilling season, starting by swapping out the potatoes themselves. Instead, we slice (somewhat thickly) sweet potatoes. But where classic hasselback potatoes get just butter or oil drizzled between those slices, we smeared a blend of butter, goat cheese, orange zest and fresh thyme between ours (which is why we slice ours thicker).
Wrapped in foil, the sliced and smeared sweet potatoes land on the grill for about 20 minutes. When they come off, they are sweet and tender and richly creamy. If you’d like to get a bit of crisp to the edges of your sweet potatoes, just open the foil on the top of each after about 10 minutes of cooking.
These sweet potatoes also are easily prepped ahead of time. Just slice, smear and wrap them up to a day ahead, then refrigerate until ready to grill.
GOAT CHEESE-STUFFED GRILLED SWEET POTATOES
Start to finish: 40 minutes
Servings: 4
4-ounce log goat cheese
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 medium sweet potatoes
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Nutrition information per serving: 260 calories; 130 calories from fat (50 percent of total calories); 14 g fat (8 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 30 mg cholesterol; 680 mg sodium; 27 g carbohydrate; 4 g fiber; 5 g sugar; 8 g protein.
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