Onions are Mother Nature’s flavor enhancer. Most people take these bulb vegetables for granted, unaware of how much they can affect a dish’s flavor. When added raw to a salad, they have a delightful, pungent flavor. And when cooked, they become deliciously sweet. In the summer, grilling the onions is a great way to enjoy them.
Not only can they make any dish more flavorful, but they also have many medicinal properties. They can help lower cholesterol, improve kidney function, and even help remove heavy metals and parasites from your body. Having a 90% water content, they have diuretic properties. Also high in anti-inflammatory properties, onions help break down high-fat foods, making them more digestible. Plus onions contain Vitamins A, B complex, and C.
Sweet potatoes, with their signature dark reddish color, add a pop of color to summer dishes. Grilling sweet potatoes always brings out their sweetness, and they are usually everyone’s favorite.
Native to South America, the sweet potato is high in fiber, vitamin C, calcium, manganese, riboflavin, panthothenic acid, and vitamin A. It is known for feeding and nurturing your spleen and pancreas. and stomach, their natural sweet taste and creamy texture make them an anti-stress food. Sweet potatoes are orange, reddish, or yellow. Sometimes confused with yams, which are white, ivory, cream, pink, or purple, they are completely different vegetables. And sweet potatoes are not related to the white potato either.
Grilled Sweet Potato Salad
2 large sweet potatoes (peeled and cut into cubes)
1 large onion (thin half-moons)
¼ cup olive oil
2 T. tamari
½ tsp. garlic salt
2 celery stalks (diced)
¼ cup parsley (minced)
Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Pot-boil the sweet potato until fork-tender. Drain and set aside. Put the sweet potato and onions in a large bowl. Add the olive oil, tamari, and garlic salt, mix all together. Heat your grill to high, then place the sweet potato and onion mixture on it. Grill the sweet potatoes and onions until they start to blacken. Remove from the grill and put in a bowl. Mix in the celery and parsley. Serve right away.
Recipe note: If you do not have a grill, you can saute the sweet potato and onions.
