Savory Sweet Potato Cups

Today I wanted to try yet another new concept in cooking.  I had a new idea hit me in the middle of the night, so I thought I would try it this morning, and am so excited to share the DELICIOUS results!  I wanted to think of an entirely new way to use sweet potatoes, and I thought of stuffing them!  But I didn't think they would hold up well to being treated like a "twice baked" stuffed potato, so I decided to cut the raw sweet potatoes into little "cups" to hold a variety of fillings!  And they worked magically!  My words of advice if you would like to try this new delightful way to eat sweet potatoes: Purchase the very large sweet potatoes so that you wind up with a good size cup to stuff!  My potatoes were about 3 1/2  inches thick, but were fairly short, so I was only able to get 6 "cups" out of 4 sweet potatoes.  I also used a paring knife to hollow out the center, but I think a melon baller might work perfectly for the job!  The following recipe is for my "Savory Sweet Potato cups", and I will post another entry about my "Sweet style Sweet Potato cups"!  I think that these Savory cups would be perfect for appetizers, or served with a salad for lunch, or even possibly served on a bed of wilted swiss chard cooked in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic!  YUM!  I hope you enjoy!

Savory Sweet Potato Cups

Serves: 6 appetizers- or 3 for a meal
Prep time: about 15 minutes
Cooking time: about 1 hour


Ingredients:
about 3-4 large sweet potatoes
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
2 cups portabella mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 cup sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup green onions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
optional: 1/2 cup crumbled crisply cooked bacon (applewood smoked would be best!)

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. First peel the sweet potatoes, and cut into about 3 inch thick slices.  Hollow out the center of the sweet potato pieces, forming them into a cup.  You should wind up with 6 fairly uniform cups. The bottom and edges should be about 1/4- 1/2 inch thick.  Lightly rub the sweet potato cups with about 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.  Place into a baking dish, and set in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes, or until fork tender.
2. While the sweet potato cups are baking, chop up the mushrooms, onion, green onion, and garlic.  Add the remaining olive oil, about 2 tablespoons, to a large frying pan (10 inch or larger) about 15 minutes before the sweet potato cups are finished baking, and place over medium high heat.  Once the oil is hot, add in the mushrooms and chopped yellow onion.  Cook until golden brown, about 5-8 minutes, stirring often.  Add in the green onions, walnuts, sea salt, pepper and garlic, and continue to cook an additional 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the blue cheese.  You may also add in the bacon if you are using it!  I wanted to keep my recipe vegetarian, but I think the bacon would be delightful! 
3. Once the sweet potato cups are fork tender, remove from the oven, and stuff each cup with about 3 heaping tablespoons of the mushroom filling.  Make sure to pack it in tightly, so that you get as much of the delicious filling in as possible!  The cups will be slightly overfull, so just press the filling up into a mound in the center.
4.  Return the filled cups to the 350 degree oven for about 5-10 additional minutes, until the cheese is melted and aromatic.
5. Serve and ENJOY! :)