Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans and Happy Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for? oh I don't even know where to begin, I thank God for my family, friends and good health. Also I am thankful for making so many lovely food blogging buddies and wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I have an adopted American family and we are going to their home tomorrow, I said I would bring something I saw these sweet potatoes on the Bitten Blog (New York Times) and knew this was the one, flavorful and not too sweet. The sweet potato is a rich source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6 and Potassium, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Manganese. You will also get protein from the black beans.

Ingredients:

• 6 sweet potatoes
• 1/4 red onion
• 6 cloves of garlic
• a little Italian seasoning
• handful of fresh cilantro
• olive oil
• can of blackbeans

Method:

1. Roast the sweet potato with onion, garlic and herbs until soft
2. then mix in black beans
3. puree a few cloves of garlic, herbs and cilantro in olive oil and mix.

Ready to go into the oven

Making the sauce

Its done, ready to take with us tomorrow!

Here's a fun piece I wrote for Blackwing Quality Meats on the First Thanksgiving meal:

The first thanksgiving was in 1621 it was celebrated by the Pilgrims with the local Massasout Indian tribe to celebrate surviving many hardships and a successful harvest. The harvest was made possible by the Indians who helped teach the new settlers how to grow corn and local food items. The first meal consisted of fowl, deer donated by the Indians, cornmeal, fish such as cod and Bass, and possible turkey. Although historians feel that it is more likely that turkey became the center piece of the meal later on.

Other food that may have been eaten include lobster, rabbit, chicken, beans, squash, chestnuts, onion, leek, cabbage, carrot, eggs and goat cheese. Pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce was not on the menu as there was a dwindled supply of sugar and no oven to make the crust. Potatoes were also not on the menu as they were not culitvated at the time. The pilgrams didn't use forks just spoons and knives and a cloth to pick up hot items of food and they didn't eat a meal in courses, all the food was put on the table at once and it could be eaten as desired.

The meats were roasted and sauces made with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon , dried fruit and pepper.

Foods That May Have Been on the Menu

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster
Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles
Meat: Venison, Seal
Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn
Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots
Fruit: Plums, Grapes
Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns
Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

What Was Not on the Menu

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn't appear on the pilgrims's first feast table:

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.
Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.
Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.
Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.
Pumpkin Pie: It's not a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it's unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.
Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it's possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation.

What ever you eat this Thanksgiving have a lovely day with family and friends Love from Rebecca of Chow and Chatter!

Sources:

1. http://www.history.com/content/thanksgiving/the-first-thanksgiving
2. http://festivals.iloveindia.com/thanks-giving/dinner/food-in-history.html