With the holiday season just around the corner, I know that many of you will be looking for recipes to bring to your holiday gatherings. Well, I have the perfect dish for you. This sweet potato mac and cheese with olives is vegetarian-friendly and it will satisfy the appetites of your meat-loving friends as well. The colder fall and winter months are when we celebrate root vegetables in our cooking. That’s why I incorporated mashed sweet potatoes into this mac and cheese. The sweet potatoes provide subtle sweet flavor and they add a lovely orange hue to the entire dish. Adding California Black Ripe Olives to the sweet potato mac and cheese is an easy way to give the dish an extra punch of flavor. The savoriness of California Black Ripe Olives is a good contrast to the sweet potatoes and it balances the richness of the mac and cheese. All California Ripe Olives go through a unique curing process that gives the ripe olives fantastic flavor and great color. You can certainly see how these olives pop in my photos! To give the mac and cheese more textural contrast, I also added panko breadcrumbs as a topping. Feel free to leave it out if you can’t find panko. When serving the mac and cheese, I love drizzling a bit of chili oil to give the dish an additional spicy kick. I know it sounds unconventional, but it is a nice touch to elevate the dish!
CAN YOU MAKE THIS SWEET POTATO MAC AND CHEESE AHEAD?
Yes, you can make this dish ahead! Add all the mac and cheese to a baking dish, but leave out the panko breadcrumbs until you are ready to cook. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Note that you may need to add a few minutes to the baking time.
MORE VEGETARIAN RECIPES
Red Curry Fried Rice with OlivesRice and Beans Stuffed PeppersLoaded Breakfast Nachos
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by California Ripe Olives. You can visit their website for more information or follow them on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter.
