Thanksgiving in a sweet potato: the holiday plate, fully yours

A holiday plate can hold everything you love about the season: turkey, greens, the bright tartness of cranberry, all tucked into a baked sweet potato. It is a full, generous meal, built entirely from real ingredients you already know and trust.

The food is doing real work underneath the comfort. Turkey is a source of protein and of zinc, involved in immune regulation and gut-barrier repair, and the sweet potato is a source of beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A, involved in immune and mucosal health. The greens add magnesium, involved in hundreds of enzyme reactions and in the nervous system.

Source the turkey from a bird raised well, and let yourself feel the gratitude the season already asks for. Make the plate beautiful: the orange of the potato, the deep green of the collards, the red of the cranberry. Before you eat, take a breath. The reverence is not separate from the meal. It is the oldest part of it.

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes, pierced a few times with a fork
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• maple syrup, to taste
• ground cinnamon, to taste
• sea salt, to taste
• 1/2 lb cooked shredded turkey
• 1 cup braised collard greens (use coconut oil or olive oil in place of bacon to keep it AIP Core)
• 1/2 cup cranberry sauce (AIP-compliant; see Cranberry Sauce for a from-scratch version, or substitute AIP gravy from Holy grail gravy)

Note: the source braises the greens with bacon. If you want the bacon note, use a clean-label, sugar-free, nitrate-free bacon and verify it; otherwise braise the greens in coconut oil or olive oil with a little salt. Cranberry sauce and turkey are made separately; both are naturally AIP when sweetened with maple or honey and cooked without nightshades.

Method

Heat the oven to 375 F. Rub the sweet potatoes with the coconut oil, wrap each in foil, and bake about 45 minutes until tender all the way through.

While the potatoes bake, gently reheat the turkey, the braised greens, and the cranberry sauce.

Split each baked potato open lengthwise and press the ends toward the center to form a pocket. Drizzle a little maple syrup into each, dust with cinnamon, and season with a pinch of salt.

Fill the pockets with the warm turkey, greens, and cranberry sauce. Serve right away.

Air fryer variation

To free the oven on a busy holiday, air fry the sweet potatoes at about 380 F for 35 to 45 minutes, turning once, until soft when pierced. Skip the foil so the skin crisps. Reheat the fillings on the stovetop and assemble as above.

*Adapted from a-clean-plate*