Sweet Potato Beach Stacks

beach stack, assembled

beautiful Prince Edward Island beach

It's the 2Ls fun week for summer 2016 & we spent our first full day on a beach, all to ourselves! Of course we talked about food preparation & planned our first dinner while soaking up the sun. Here's what we came up with.

Sweet Potato Beach Stacks

Sweet Potato Layer
2 medium sweet potatoes
1/2-1 tsp cinnamon

Carmelized Onion Layer
2 onions (any colour)
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon of olive oil
splash of balsamic vinegar

Black Bean Layer
15-19 ounce can of black beans
2 large cloves garlic
seasoning of choice

Roasted Red Pepper Layer
1 red pepper

Heat oven to 450. Wash & place sweet potatoes & red pepper in hot oven. Cook for 45-60 minutes or until the potatoes are soft & the red peppers are charred.
Peel & chop onion. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onions until caramelized, lower heat as needed, stirring often. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar near the end of cooking.
While the onions are cooking, drain & rinse the black beans. Peel & mince the cloves of garlic. Place 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan, adding the garlic & then the black beans. Heat on low, stirring often.
Remove the potatoes & peppers from oven. Peel & mash the sweet potatoes with cinnamon.
Seed & remove skins from peppers & slice into strips.
Now for the assembly. Place half the sweet potatoes on a plate & smooth into a flat disc, place half the onions on top of the sweet potatoes, spoon black beans on top of the onions & top with half the roasted red peppers.

We enjoyed this recipe but talked about making some adjustments the next time we make it. One idea is that we thought it would be good to start with a bed of greens & build on top of that. Baby spinach or baby kale would be good or whatever greens you enjoy. Leah thought the greens should be raw; Loriann prefers hers lightly cooked. We also thought making the beans a little mushier by mashing some of them or adding a little vegetable broth. We didn't want to loose the texture of the whole beans completely though. Another idea was to change the order the order of the stack, mashing the beans instead & starting with them, then roasting the sweet potatoes in discs or chunks & placing on top of the onions. 
Send us your suggestions!