Sweet Potato, fried rice-style

I'm going to be honest with you: this is a lot -- A LOT -- of work.  And I am saying that as a person who really enjoys chopping vegetables.

I know, that makes me "weird", but I find it extremely satisfying and relaxing.  While I was chopping the sweet potato, in fact, I thought "Gah I'm not even going to BOTHER posting this recipe because this is SO TEDIOUS".

But then I made it.  And it tasted AWESOME.  So I'm sharing.

I don't expect you all to jump up and make this, but if you find yourself with some free time (it took me 30 minutes to dice up the sweet potato), please make this.  You will not be sorry.

What to do:

1 large-ish sweet potato, peeled
2 stalks green onion, sliced (the white and the green parts)
1 - 2 tsp. grated ginger (using a Microplane) ((I used 2))
2 cloves garlic, grated (using the same Microplane)
sesame oil
2 eggs

So ... you can probably tell from the name of the recipe that you're gonna have to turn that enormous sweet potato into "rice".  The way I did it was to use my mandolin to slice it thinly, then julienne and then chop into "rice-like" pieces.

Were they perfect?  No.  Was each piece totally uniform in size and shape?  Not at all.  But they were MOSTLY about the same size as large grains of rice.  And that worked out just fine.

Pushing a sweet potato down a mandolin is not for the faint of heart.  What I found worked great (and protected my delicate fingers) was to get it started on the blade -- S L O W L Y -- and then use the flat part of my knife (the part that's usually perpendicular to the cutting board) to sort of "hammer" it down.  I did this with the blade up because I didn't want to dull the blade against the mandolin.  And you do not have to worry about it hitting as there are grooves on either side of the mandolin to help guide the vegetable through and your knife will rest easily on that.

That ended up leaving me with a few "bits" of pieces that were just too small to try to do this safely and those I just cut into rice-sized pieces using my knife.  Again -- they were NOT perfect.  I'm not saying this is a Bocuse d'Or winning dish or anything, but it was close enough.

So that's the hard part!  And that part can be done waaaaay before you intend to make dinner!  I had mine sitting on the counter for like 2 hours waiting to be cooked up.

So now the easy stuff:

Heat a frying pan and add some sesame oil (however much you're comfortable with -- for me it was about 1 T.) and throw the green onion/garlic/ginger in there for about 20 seconds.  Add the sweet potato, toss, and then LET IT SIT there for a good minute or 2 to get some yummy caramelization.

Toss it occasionally for about 10 minutes (or maybe even less -- it cooks really fast) and season with salt/pepper to taste.  Soy sauce is not Paleo, so I am not using it, but I can assure you it would have been a-mazing in this.

When it's almost done, move it off to another burner while you heat up some more sesame oil in another small frying pan.  Add 2 eggs and scramble with a little salt/pepper.

Add the eggs to the "rice", and move it back to the heated burner.  Toss, taste, serve, devour.

Seriously, I know it sounds like a huge pain, but if you're avoiding grains, this is quite delicious.

And you could always add 1/2 cup frozen peas/carrots (slightly defrosted at least -- set them on the counter in the measuring cup while you are frying the "rice") at the end, as well as some additional sliced green onions for a nice touch.

Even my husband -- an avid rice addict -- thought this one was "really good".  I didn't argue.