Healthy Apple Sweet Potato Bake

February approaches and with it, the third anniversary of the month I was bald and sick and learning to eat toast. February 2017 — Valentine's Day on the couch, performative cards with Scott, the slow drip of Taxol, the fuzz of new hair. Now it's February 2019 and I am whole and running and working and cooking and the distance between the two Februaries is measureless. I don't go back to visit the old one. I carry it, the way you carry a scar — always present, rarely noticed, occasionally aching when the weather changes.

Lily is learning to read. She's behind Mason's pace (who isn't?) but making progress, sounding out words with the concentration of someone defusing a bomb. Her current reading level is simple sentences: "The cat sat on the mat." "I see the dog." "The horse is big." The horse sentences are her favorite. She reads them with emphasis: "The horse is BIG." Everything about horses gets emphasis.

At the clinic, a woman brought in a cat that had been hit by a car. Broken pelvis, internal injuries, poor prognosis. She couldn't afford treatment. She was a single mom — I could see it in her, the tired eyes, the calculation happening behind them, the math of love vs. money that no parent should have to do. I talked to Pham. We worked out a reduced rate. We saved the cat. The woman cried and said, "How can I repay you?" I said, "You don't. You just take your cat home." This is the work. This is why it matters.

I made a big Sunday dinner: roasted pork loin, roasted root vegetables, applesauce (homemade, from apples I bought at the store, not the ranch — we don't have an orchard, but I have a stove and that's enough). Brett and Claire came. We ate at the table and talked about nothing important and the evening was warm and the food was good and the company was the right company, and I thought: this is what Sundays are for. Sundays are for cooking too much and eating slowly and sitting at a table with people you love and not being in a hurry to be anywhere else.

The applesauce I made that Sunday started the whole thing — once the apples were out and the oven was hot, it felt wrong not to keep going. This apple and sweet potato bake is what I reach for when I want something that feels like the meal itself: warm without being heavy, sweet without being dessert, simple enough that I can actually be present at the table instead of running back to the stove. After a week of holding other people’s hard things, I needed a dish that just… held.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 medium apples (such as Honeycrisp or Fuji), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 tablespoons olive oil or melted coconut oil
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Optional: 2 tablespoons chopped pecans or walnuts for topping

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray or a thin coat of oil.
Mix the glaze. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and lemon juice until combined.
Toss and layer. Add the sweet potato and apple slices to the bowl and toss gently until evenly coated. Arrange in the prepared baking dish in overlapping rows, alternating sweet potato and apple slices.
Pour remaining glaze. Drizzle any remaining glaze from the bowl evenly over the top of the layered slices.
Cover and bake. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are beginning to soften.
Uncover and finish. Remove the foil, scatter nuts over the top if using, and return to the oven for 12–15 minutes more, until the edges are lightly caramelized and the sweet potatoes are completely tender when pierced with a fork.
Rest and serve. Let the bake rest for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon directly from the dish alongside roasted pork, chicken, or any Sunday main.

Nutrition (per serving)

Healthy Apple Sweet Potato Bake — The Sunday Table That Had Everything It Needed