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Holy crap. Can you smell them? CAN YOU?

Once upon a time I went to a restaurant in Raleigh and was passed a side dish my dear friend Laura ordered. Sweet potato something or other in a little crock.

OMG. SFG.

Laura was sweet enough to share the taters with me that night, and we both declared the dish food from heaven, something we’d be more than happy to eat as a meal. With nothing else.

Tonight? That dream came true.

For me.

Laura had to hear me talking about it from two hours away, and for that, I apologize.

Laura, I’m SO SORRY.

But you guys. These are so easy and dreamy that I can assure you all Laura will be making this tomorrow night. She won’t suffer for long.

On with the show.

The basic flavors were sweet potatoes, onion and bacon. I figured I’d work with those, olive oil, maybe a little butter and maybe a little salt. Nothing else.

No, seriously.

(Warning: I cook my bacon in the microwave because I CANNOT STAND the splatter burns, and I don’t have a splatter screen.)

Roasted sweet potatoes with bacon and onion
2 large sweet potatoes
1 large onion
5 slices of bacon
enough extra virgin olive oil to coat (maybe 2 tbs.?)
1 tbs. butter
1 tsp.(ish) kosher salt

Preheat oven to 425.

Wash, peel and scallop the sweet potatoes. Slice the onion and separate the rings. Set aside.

Line a plate with a paper towel, lay out the bacon, cover with another paper towel and microwave for 4 minutes.

Bacon won’t be crisp and maybe a little undercooked. GOOD. Wipe down a 9×13 glass baking dish with the bacon-grease soaked paper towel. Chop up the bacon. Load up the dish with the sweet potatoes, onion slices and bacon. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.

After about 15 minutes, I peeked and saw that things were a little dry. This is where I stirred in the 1 tbs. of butter, then I covered the dish with foil. Maybe cover it at first and you won’t need the butter at all.

Um. So I didn’t check how long it took exactly. My nose told me when it was done. I think it was somewhere from 30-45 minutes.

I’m sorry this is in no way an exact science! I’m going from tastebud memory from almost two months ago, and this is my first (highly successful) attempt. To be entirely honest, I didn’t think it’d turn out this awesome.

Yay for surprises!