Serve this eye catching vegan dish to complement your next celebratory meal or bring as a crowd pleaser at the next potluck or party function!
- 2 medium sweet potatoes [combined weight of 700 g]
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup fresh orange juice with pulp (freshly squeezed orange juice and pulp from one large orange)
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange zest (approximately the zest from one large orange)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey or agave nectar)
- Fresh orange slices or clementine wedges to decorate the sides of the baking dish
- Handful chopped or whole pecan nuts
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Preheat oven to 400 F (or 200 C) and set the rack in the middle position.
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Wash, peel and slice up the sweet potatoes into thin round pieces.
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Slice the orange in half, squeeze out the juice, and then use a small fine holed grater to get the orange zest from the rinds.
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Prepare the glaze sauce by whisking together the orange juice, zest, maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg.
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Using an 8 inch x 8 inch glass bakeware dish (20 cm x 20 cm), place the thin sweet potato rounds to make a first layer covering the bottom of the bakeware dish. Then use a spoon to drizzle on the glazing sauce so that each sweet potato round gets some of the sauce. Finally sprinkle on a small handful of the dried cranberries.
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Add more pieces to make a second layer of sweet potato rounds. Then repeat with drizzling the glazing sauce and sprinkling on dried cranberries.
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If there are any sweet potato round pieces left, make a third layer and drizzle on the remaining amount of the glazing sauce and add the rest of the dried cranberries.
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Seal the bakeware dish well with aluminum foil and then bake for approximately 40 – 45 minutes. At the 40-minute mark, remove the dish from the oven and carefully uncover the foil cover, then pierce a sweet potato round piece with a fork or knife to see if it goes through easily. If it does, the dish is done. If not, replace the foil cover and bake the dish for another 5-10 minutes or until done. Then remove the bakeware dish from the oven, uncover the aluminum foil and let cool slightly before serving.
At the 40-minute mark, you can uncover the foil carefully (to avoid hot steam escaping) and sprinkle on the pecans (optional). Then bake the dish uncovered for the last 5 minutes.