Recipe Beans and Sweets

Serve beans and sweets with steamed pumpkin or green salad.

There is so much to learn out there, if you keep an open mind. Sweet potato is called u-bhatata where I was born  in Africa, somewhere down south.

I left the continent and landed in north America where I found u-bhatata in a Chinese grocery store on Pembina Highway but they call it Japanese yams. It has white meat inside, just like u-bhatata. Pink sweet potatoes are new to me because I grew up with the white ones. Grandma was a farmer. We used to help her harvest sweet potatoes, pull them up from the ground, chop off leaves, wash the soil off, then roast or boil them.

In my travels, I learned that African Americans have sweet potato pie. They also have something called candied yams. I wonder what they taste like. Sweet potatoes are very flexible, eat them raw or drop them in soup. Here’s a recipe.

Beans and Sweet Potatoes

1. Wash the sweets thoroughly, peel and slice them.

2. Boil or steam them, if you have a steamer.

3. Remove left over white beans from the fridge and leave on the shelf.

4. Toss garlic, onion, Jamaican jerk sauce and tomato in olive oil for 6m.

5. Add steamed sweets, cook for 5m.

6. Add beans in the pot.

7. Cook for 5m, and turn off heat.

8. Eat with rice or as a soup.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.