Easy Sweet-Potato Hash with Bacon

Serve as a side, or top with a fried egg for a quick main course

So you’ll probably have some sweet potatoes left over from Thanksgiving dinner, right? And your guests will be hungry the day after, despite the huge meal you served. (Funny how that works.)

If you roast sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving, you’ll have the perfect leftover ingredient for a tasty breakfast dish. Or even the foundation for a quick dinner.

This Easy Sweet-Potato Hash with Bacon makes a savory side. Or top it with a fried or poached egg for a one-dish meal. Add a beverage of your choice (if it’s dinner, a glass of wine would go well), and you’re all set.

So hash your mouth.

Recipe: Easy Sweet-Potato Hash with Bacon

Although we like to make this dish with leftover Roast Sweet Potatoes, you can also make it with raw, uncooked sweet potatoes. We provide instructions for making the dish both ways.

Exact ingredient quantities aren’t critical for this dish. So feel free to change things up to suit whatever you have on hand—and your own tastes. In particular, you might want to add more bacon than we specify.

This recipe takes about 30 to 40 minutes from start to finish.

It serves 3 to 4 as a main course, or twice that number as a side dish. Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for a day or two if stored in an airtight container.

Ingredients

• ~1½ pounds leftover roast sweet potatoes; or whole, raw sweet potatoes (exact quantity not crucial)
• ½ pound bacon (or to taste)
• ~1 cup chopped onion (1 large onion)
• 1 large red bell pepper (can substitute green, orange, or yellow)
• 2 to 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary (see Notes for substitutions)
• ~1 tablespoon olive oil, only if needed (which it probably won’t be; see Step 9)
• ~½ teaspoon Kosher salt (or to taste; see Notes)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste; optional)
• garnish of fresh rosemary sprigs and/or Fried Eggs (optional; may also use Poached Eggs)

Procedure

1. If using leftover roast sweet potatoes, cut them into dice of ½ to ¾ inch (or larger, if you prefer). Set aside until Step 8.
2. If using raw sweet potatoes, wash, dry, and peel them. Cut the sweet potatoes into dice of ½ to ¾ inch (or larger, if you prefer). Place the diced sweet potatoes in a microwave-safe bowl with a cover, along with a tablespoon or so of water. Nuke the sweet potatoes until they are cooked (or almost cooked)—5 minutes or longer, depending on the power of your microwave and the amount of sweet potatoes. Remove the sweet potatoes from their bowl and drain them on paper towels (allow them to continue draining until Step 8).
3. Cut the bacon into pieces of ½ inch or so. Put the bacon pieces in a large, cold frying pan, then place over medium heat. Sauté the bacon until it is brown and crispy (8 to 12 minutes). While the bacon is cooking, move on to Steps 4 through 7.
4. Peel the onion and cut it into dice of ½ inch or smaller. Set the diced onion aside.
5. Wash and dry the bell pepper. Remove the stem and the interior seeds. Cut the pepper into dice of ½ inch or so, taking care to remove the white membrane. Set the diced bell pepper aside.
6. Peel the garlic and mince it finely or cut it into very thin slices. Set the minced garlic aside.
7. Mince the fresh rosemary and set it aside.
8. By now, the bacon should be brown and crisp. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon from the frying pan and drain it on a plate lined with paper towels, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the sweet potatoes (from Step 1 or 2) to the pan. Cook the sweet potatoes until they’re nicely browned on the outside (and thoroughly cooked on the inside, if using raw sweet potatoes that might not have cooked completely in the microwave in Step 2). With a slotted spoon, remove the cooked sweet potatoes from the frying pan and add them to the plate with the bacon.
9. Add the diced onions and bell pepper to the frying pan (there should still be enough bacon fat in the pan for sautéing them, but if not, add a tablespoon of olive oil). Add Kosher salt to taste (½ teaspoon for us) and sauté the onions and bell pepper until the onions are translucent and beginning to brown—8 minutes or so.
10. When the onions are just beginning to turn brown, add the garlic to the pan and sauté it for a minute.
11. Next add the drained bacon bits and sweet potatoes back to the pan, along with the minced fresh rosemary. Stir the mixture together and taste. Add additional salt (if necessary) and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Add the cayenne pepper, if using, and stir the mixture again. Cook the hash over medium-low heat for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.
12. The hash is now ready to serve. Garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs and/or fried or poached eggs, if desired.

Notes

• Sausage (just about any kind) would be a good substitute for bacon in this dish.
• Don’t substitute dried rosemary for fresh—its flavor is uninspiring. Instead, substitute dried thyme (maybe a teaspoon).
• You could also use minced fresh parsley instead of fresh rosemary.
• Hot spices like cayenne pepper are wonderful with sweet potatoes. If you’re worried about too much spiciness, though, start with less than the recipe calls for—you can always add more later.
• Smoked paprika would also be awesome in this dish.
• Kosher salt is more coarse than regular table salt, so it’s less salty by volume. If you’re substituting table salt for Kosher, always use less—about half as much. If the dish isn’t salty enough, you can always add more later.
• Which is a good reminder—always taste as you cook, and adjust seasonings to your taste. Your taste always trumps what the recipe specifies.
• The structure of this hash is rather loose—it isn’t meant to pack together the way Corned Beef Hash often does. If you want the “packed” effect, cook it longer in Step 11, mashing down the surface of the hash with a spatula to help compact it. Adding some chicken stock (start with half a cup, although you’ll probably need more) in Step 11 also helps bind everything together. 
• If you want a browned top on this hash, you can run it under the broiler for a minute or two after cooking.

Hash Puppies

“This is so good, we should create a hashtag for it,” said Mrs. Kitchen Riffs, tucking into her Easy Sweet-Potato Hash with Bacon.

“We ought to hash that idea over,” I said.

“Maybe #hearthash?” said Mrs K R.

“Let’s give it careful thought,” I said. “Lest we make a hash of it.”

“Don’t harsh my hash,” said Mrs K R.

It may take us a while to hash this out.

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