Up Your Sweet Potato Game This Holiday Season With This Easy Slicing Technique

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When most folks imagine a full holiday spread, they usually envision a sweet potato casserole of some sort gracing the table. Marshmallows and sweet potatoes go way back, but let's face it, it's been done. The lack of differentiation with sweet potato dishes is a shame, considering how versatile those tasty orange tubers are. They can be used to upgrade a pot of chili, as a flavorful pizza topping, or even be put inside brownies if you really want to work outside the box. One genius way to make those spuds pop on a plate is by slicing them into rounds and serving them almost like a sweet potato toast you can top with various goodies.

We've all seen sweet potato dishes that feature the veg cut into cubes, but little rounds served as an appetizer are showstoppers. You can slice the spuds into circles a couple of different ways. The most obvious method is to take a chef's knife and cut across the width of the veg (peeled or skin on, it's your choice). However, it can be challenging to achieve uniform rounds, which is essential for them to all bake consistently.

Unless you wield a knife with the precision of a professional chef, a better way to produce sweet potato rounds is to use a mandoline. It will save you a lot of time, but more importantly, it guarantees that each round will be the same thickness as the others. Whichever way the sweet potatoes are sliced, the real fun begins when you start introducing flavor to the spuds to truly make them stand out.

Not only does slicing sweet potatoes into rounds make for a visually appealing appetizer, but the plethora of scrumptious toppings you can accent the veg with are just as versatile as spuds themselves. If you want to keep things sweet, coat them with maple syrup and warming spices like cinnamon. These will get you flavors that embody the holiday season. Coconut oil or sugar (or both) would also give a more saccharine bite. Toss a little brown sugar on when they're almost done baking for a boost of sweetness and gorgeous caramelization, then top the baked rounds with toasted or candied walnuts for a toothsome treat before a main course.

There's also the option of going the savory route with sweet potato rounds. Seasoned with garlic, paprika, and herbs, the spuds become terrific vessels for toppings like feta and chives, goat cheese and a balsamic glaze, or bacon and homemade guacamole. You could even work in some sugary components for a sweet and savory flavor bomb by candying the bacon or adding a touch of honey to the spuds before baking them.

One element that's sometimes missing at a holiday feast is spice, and sweet potato rounds can fill that role as well. Instead of coating the veggies with warming spices, think more along the lines of chili powder or a touch of cayenne pepper for some zing. Once again, you can add something sweet to the coating for more depth of flavor. Topped with chorizo or green chilis, they can fill that spicy void sometimes present on a seasonal spread.