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Nutritious sweet potatoes and a classic summer salad come together in this elegant appetizer.

#sweetpotato #caprese #sliders #thefoodiephysician

This month’s Recipe Redux theme is “Get your fruits and veggies in shape… Show us how you’re serving the bounty of gardens and orchards in shapes like ribbons, noodles, cut-outs, or other creative cuts.” When I read this, my first thought was- perfect! Finally, I had an excuse to pull my spiralizer out of the closet! My husband Pete actually got it for me as a gift about a year ago and I think he’s (not so) secretly been a little disappointed that I haven’t been cranking out spiralized dishes every night for dinner. It’s not that I don’t love my spiralizer- on the contrary, the first time I used it to make zucchini noodles (aka zoodles), they came out great! The sad truth is that as a food blogger, I tend to get so bogged down with my blog schedule, that it’s hard to find time to just play around in the kitchen and experiment with new tools and recipes. I know my fellow food bloggers can relate!

So, needless to say, I was happy to have an excuse to dust the spiralizer off and put it to good use.The next question was, what dish was I going to make? Not having made a ton of spiraled dishes before, I decided to turn to a fellow Reduxer for inspiration.

I fell in love with these beautiful Sweet Potato Caprese Sliders the moment Tawnie Kroll posted them a few months ago on her blog, Kroll’s Korner. I was so excited to be able to try them out for myself! If you don’t know Tawnie, she’s a super talented Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) from
Clovis, California. I’m always impressed by the recipes she posts on her site. Her photos are gorgeous and her dishes are vibrant, mouthwatering, healthy and of course, delicious!

What I love about Tawnie is that she has a very similar philosophy as me. As she puts it, Food is thy medicine. This is a girl after my own heart! She believes that nourishing the body with wholesome and nutritious foods can do wonders such as preventing or reversing chronic diseases, elevating your mood, enhancing sleep, and maximizing your potential in all aspects of life. Like me, she also doesn’t believe in diets because as she says, living a healthy lifestyle does not come with a quick fix or a fad.
Rather, a healthy lifestyle is about providing your body with nutritious food choices daily to keep your body functioning optimally.

To my delight, the Sweet Potato Caprese Sliders came out great! Not only were they beautiful to
look at with their lovely orange hue, they were also packed with flavor. Plus they’re loaded with plenty of nutrients including carotenoids, bioflavonoids and Vitamin C. I wouldn’t normally think to pair sweet potatoes with a caprese salad but I found that the sweetness of the potatoes balanced out the bright, acidic tomatoes and rich, creamy mozzarella perfectly. And the balsamic reduction drizzle was the perfect finishing touch.

I only made a few slight changes to the recipe, such as cooking the sweet potato noodles a little longer (the cook time will vary depending on how thick your noodles are) and not flipping them in the oven (to prevent them from falling apart). I also tried out a second version of the dish with zucchini noodles but the sweet potato sliders were the hands-down winner!