Sweet Potato Wontons and a Special Drink

I originally made this appetizer during the Tasty & Healthy New Year Challenge complete with homemade wontons.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’m participating in this week’s party along with Matt Weber from Thyme in Our Kitchen, Donna Currie of Cookistry and Heather Scholten of Farmgirl Gourmet. Here’s the menu:

• Appetizer: My Sweet Potato Wontons (see below)
• Intermezzo: Matt’s French Onion Soup
• Entrée: Donna’s Valentine’s Spaghetti (with a heart)
• Dessert: Heather’s Chocolate Lovers Cheesecake

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

1 medium carrot, julienned
1 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
24 wonton wrappers
cooking spray
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon flour
1½ cups cooked sweet potato
1/3 cup fat-free half-and-half
3 tablespoons mango chutney

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.