I originally made this appetizer during the Tasty & Healthy New Year Challenge complete with homemade wontons. Let me save you some pain: just buy ready-made wontons at your local grocery store. This is one case where homemade really isn’t worth the trouble. But the filling was so savory, so spicy, so sweet, so DELICIOUS that I knew I had to make the dish again.
When Myron and Otis McDaniel from the Taste show at N8tion.com approached the Virtual Potluck gang about doing a series of three four course dinner parties leading up to Valentine’s Day, I immediately signed up to bring these Sweet Potato Wontons as an appetizer for one of them. The Taste folks specialize in drinks, so they offered to create a perfectly paired drink for each course of each of the three meals.
I requested that a diabetic-friendly, low-carb, non-alcoholic beverage be prepared to accompany the wontons. Taste came up with a drink called A Night in Old Mandalay featuring run extract, orange juice, lemon juice and diet ginger ale. Watch Taste’s video below to learn how to prepare the drink.
This colorful appetizer with the perfectly paired A Night in Old Mandalay will elicit many “ooohs” and “ahhhs” when you serve it at your Valentine’s Day or Super Bowl party.
Sweet Potato Wontons
Adapted from Holiday Diabetic Recipes (2011) by the editors of Diabetic Living
Sauté the carrots in 1 teaspoon of olive oil over medium heat until they are limp, but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray one side of wonton wrappers with cooking spray, then press them, sprayed side down, into a mini-muffin tin. You may have to pleat them to make them fit. Bake about 10 minutes or until golden.
In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, curry powder, ginger and garlic. Cook until onion is tender, then stir in flour. Add sweet potato, half-and-half and chutney. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened.
Spoon sweet potato mixture into wonton shells and garnish with carrot strips. Serve immediately.
Makes 24 servings
Per serving (1 wonton): 51 calories, 2g fat (0g sat), 1mg cholesterol, 89mg sodium, 8g carb, 0g fiber, 2g sugar, 1g protein
Nutritional Analysis: These wontons are very low in Cholesterol and are a good source of Vitamin A.
We’re entering the final week of the Virtual Potluck Tasty and Healthy New Year Challenge featuring products from Bob’s Red Mill and California Olive Ranch. Each week so far in 2012, we’ve paired a flour or grain with an olive oil and created a dish using both. Our final challenge is to create a dessert with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and Everyday California Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You’ll have a chance to win both products in one last giveaway, but more on that later.
Chocolate-Ginger Cupcakes were my first idea for a dessert using whole wheat pastry flour and olive oil. Then my fellow Virtual Potluck blogger GrooVy Foody had to go and publish her revolutionary Chocolate Quinoa Cupcakes last week. I mean, who can compete with that? I’ll save my chocolate cupcakes for Valentine’s Day.
My next thought was to do something lemony. Lemon and olive oil naturally go together being Mediterranean and all. Some may not consider bread to be a dessert, but I certainly do, especially when it’s loaded with crunchy almonds and covered in a sweet, lemony glaze.
This recipe is an example of why you don’t have to be afraid of sugar. People with diabetes can eat sugar IN MODERATION. One slice of this loaf has 23g of carbohydrates. If that fits in your daily meal plan, you can eat this even though it has sugar in it.
I have one last note about this bread. I made it the night before leaving on a trip to the Florida Keys. I wrapped it up, fully intending for it to be breakfast the next morning. The Grillmaster and I were in such a rush, we decided to leave the bread wrapped and take it to Mom & Dad to thank them for driving us to the airport. We arrived at Mom & Dad’s house late in the evening and forgot about the bread until about 11 p.m. or so. I knew we’d be in another frenzy the next morning racing to the airport, so we decided to have a bedtime snack. Mom had gone to bed, but The Grillmaster, Dad and I stood at the kitchen counter “yumming” over the bread. I got an email from Mom once we got to Florida saying “The bread was really moist and lemony and I liked that it had lots of nuts. Really good.” So there you have it – this Lemon Loaf with Almonds gets the Diabetic Foodie’s Mom’s seal of approval!
Giveaway
Bob’s Red Mill and California Olive Ranch will be giving one lucky reader a bag of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and a bottle of Everyday California Extra Virgin Olive Oil. To enter the contest:
[mandatory] Visit the California Olive Ranch Facebook page and retrieve this week’s Virtual Potluck code word (click on Virtual Potluck in the left column). Then come back here and use the word in a comment on this post.
[optional] Follow Bob’s Red Mill (@Bobs_Red_Mill), California Olive Ranch (@CA_EVOO) and Virtual Potluck (@virtualpotluck) on Twitter. Tweet about this contest, including a link to this post and the #virtualpotluck hashtag. Then comment here again, letting us know you’ve tweeted.
The contest ends at midnight Eastern on Sun., Jan. 29, 2012. The winner will be announced on Mon., Jan. 30. You must have a U.S. mailing address to win. Good luck!
Discount
California Olive Ranch is offering a 10% discount for the duration of the Tasty & Healthy New Year Challenge. Just go to their online store and enter the coupon code BLOGFRIENDS at checkout.
Disclosure: I received free samples of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour from Bob’s Red Mill and Everyday California Extra Virgin Olive Oil from California Olive Ranch. I also received samples to give away on my blog.
Lemon Loaf with Almonds
Adapted from Holiday Diabetic Recipes (2011) from the editors of Diabetic Living
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup egg substitute
1 cup nonfat milk
1/4 cup Everyday California Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
GLAZE (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
Place almonds in a dry nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they have a bit of color and are toasted (about 5 minutes). Be careful not to let them burn. Set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center.
In a medium bowl, combine egg substitute, milk, olive oil, lemon zest and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Add this mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (don’t overmix) and fold in almonds. The batter will be a little bit lumpy – this is okay. Pour batter into loaf pan.
Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
If you have opted to add the glaze, mix the 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl. While bread is still hot in the pan, poke holes in it with a skewer. Brush lemon-sugar mixture over top of loaf. Place pan on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and let cool completely on wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before serving.
If you are not adding the glaze, place pan on a wire cooking rack for 10 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and let cool completely on wire rack.
Makes 16 servings
Per serving (includes glaze): 167 calories, 7g fat (1g sat), 0mg cholesterol, 96mg sodium, 23g carb, 2g fiber, 11g sugar, 4g protein
Nutritional Analysis: This bread is low in Cholesterol.
Congratulations to Athena of Florence, SC, our third winner in the Tasty & Healthy New Year Challenge sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill and California Olive Ranch.
Athena will receive a bag of Quinoa and a bottle of Arbosana Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We’d love to hear what you make with these ingredients, Athena!
For those who didn’t win this time, we’ll have one final giveaway coming up on Wednesday. Check back then for your chance to WIN!
