I’ve been waiting to share this recipe with you forever.
Forever.
And this recipe will blow your mind, folks.
I created this bruschetta recipe a few months ago and it was so insanely delish that I couldn’t help but want to share it with you just in time for the fall weather. Now, you’ll see two different types of bruschetta here (one with a sweet potato topping with fresh herbs and another with a mashed pumpkin puree topping with almond butter); the latter recipe will be coming soon. I’ve gotta keep you on your toes! One recipe at a time. So, I’m sharing the fresh basil bruschetta with you today so I can blow your mind one week at a time.
Sound good?
Because I’m all about creating a lot of flavor with a few fresh ingredients, I opted to roast a few sweet potatoes just to perfection and then simply mash them together with sea salt, pepper before I spread it onto a toasted piece of gluten-free Italian bread and popped these pieces of toast back into the oven to warm up. The grand finale? To serve these babies with fresh lemon zest, diced red onions, fresh basil (ahhhhh the smell of fresh basil!) and a whole lotta love.
See how easy it can be to create an appetizer for your family that’s packed with flavor but doesn’t have any of those processed inflammatory ingredients inside?
I’m going to show you just how easy it can be.
This recipe is perfect for entertaining with spring and summer dinner parties. Just because it’s April doesn’t mean the weather is going to get hot just get. It’s starting to slowly warm up in Manhattan and in plenty of parts of the country so you’ve got time to whip these up and serve them to your guests (or your family) for a fancy yet super easy appetizer that everyone will love.
If you’re not a fan of basil, you can use parsley or cilantro; however the basil really brings out the naturally sweet taste in this appetizer so I highly recommend finding some fresh basil and using it to enjoy this amazing herby flavor.
Don’t worry, I see you eyeing the other almond butter bruschetta recipe below… that recipe will be coming soon. Hold your horses. It will be here before you know it. For now, dive into your sweet potatoes and surprise your family with a fun finger-food appetizer that they’ll be requesting over and over again this year.
Enjoy!
xo
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Ingredients
- 1 loaf gluten-free whole grain Italian bread cut into 1/2 inch slices
- 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil plus more if needed
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1/2 small red onion finely chopped
- Juice of 1 large lemon
- 2 Tbsp. fresh basil leaves finely chopped
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Large pinch fresh lemon zest
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
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Poke the sweet potatoes with a fork to make small holes in the potatoes and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until very tender.
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Meanwhile, prepare a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the bread slices in a single layer on top of the paper; use a brush to brush on the olive oil on the top of each slice. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Keep the oven on.
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Remove the bread and sweet potatoes from oven and peel the sweet potatoes when they are cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes after cooking. Discard peels and mash the inner sweet potato flesh in a medium sized bowl.
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Spoon the sweet potato flesh on the top of the toasted bread slices then bake for another 10 minutes or until the sweet potato topping is golden brown and the bread is toasty. Remove from the oven and top each piece with onion, a drizzle of lemon juice, basil, sea salt, pepper and lemon zest. Serve warm.
made it for my guests and they loved it! a nice twist on the usually bruchetta