Day-After-Thanksgiving Sweet Potato Quinoa Tacos
by Amie Valpone
It’s that time of the year when we’re all scurrying around trying to find yummy recipes for the upcoming holidays but what we tend to overlook is what to do with all the leftovers. Don’t worry. I have you covered here. Instead of the typical day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich, I made a really easy and fun spin on the traditional boring holiday leftovers.
Enter TACOS!
Yes, that’s right. Think of your taco shells just like you would two slices of bread to make a post-Thanksgiving sandwich. All you need to do is toss your Thanksgiving leftovers into the taco shells and you can even top these tacos with leftover warmed up gravy, if you’d like. If you have a few sweet potatoes still on your counter that you didn’t roast for the holiday, you’re in luck because they’re our star ingredient for this recipe. If you don’t have any sweet potatoes on hand, no worries. Sweet potatoes are at their prime in every food store right now and at farmer’s markets, as well. Plus, I bet they’re on sale after Thanksgiving!
To add a bit more heartiness to these tacos, I added a few scoops of fluffy quinoa but don’t fret if you don’t have quinoa on hand or if your company ate all of your quinoa from Thanksgiving. You can easily use any whole grain you’d like. I prefer to use gluten-free grains such as brown rice, wild rice, millet and quinoa so feel free to swap out the quinoa for whichever grain you’d like. There’s a lot of protein in quinoa, which is why I chose it for this recipe, but if you’re in need of a bit more protein, I suggest adding a handful of roasted nuts on top of these tacos.
These tacos have a lot of cozy holiday flavor to them but they also have a touch of sweetness and crunchiness from the apple, cucumber and fresh basil or mint. I decided to make this combination of heartiness from the sweet potatoes and quinoa combined with warmer weather ingredients like the apple, cucumber and herbs because it offers a nice balance to each bite. I know many of you are still full from Thanksgiving dinner so I didn’t want to make these tacos too heavy on your belly! That’s why there’s a nice touch of light ingredients in here, as well.
The best part of these tacos?
The flavor-packed and super sweet caramelized red onions. You can allow your onions to get as caramelized as you’d like. I often let them cook until they are super tender and bursting with flavor but if you like your onions to still have a bit of a bite to them, you can cook these onions for a shorter amount of time. It’s up to you. Either way, they add a really lovely touch of flavor to these tacos that I know you’re going to enjoy.
Day-After-Thanksgiving Sweet Potato Quinoa Tacos
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
½ cup quinoa
1 cup filtered water
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 large Pink Lady apple, thinly sliced
1 large cucumber, diced
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil or mint
8 taco shells
Leftover gravy, optional
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Use a sharp knife to thinly slice the sweet potatoes width-wise into ¼ inch slices, then slice those pieces in half again (as shown in the photograph). Place the sliced sweet potatoes on the prepared baking sheet and drizzle with 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Add more oil if needed. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender and golden brown. Note: the roasting time will depend on how thick your sweet potato slices are.
Meanwhile, cook the quinoa in the water with a pinch of sea salt on the stovetop in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring well, for about 10-12 minutes or until the quinoa is tender and fluffy. Remove from the heat, cover and set aside.
In a large skillet, add the remaining 2 tsp. olive oil and add the sliced red onion. Cover and sauté over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the onions are tender and starting to caramelize. Only stir the onions every 5 minutes so they start to get nice and golden brown and caramelized. Add more oil, as needed.
Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes to cool.
Prepare the taco shells on a flat surface. Add the quinoa, sweet potatoes, onions, apple slices, cucumber and fresh basil. Serve warm with a drizzle of leftover Thanksgiving gravy on top, if you’d like!
Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
