Caramelized Onion & Bacon Compote on Sweet Potato Crostini
I am always looking for a good appetizer for dinner parties. You need something that will WOW guests and also be able to sit out at room temperature. It is surprising how hard it is find good room temp apps that aren’t dips or chips! Caramelizing onions means cooking them for A LONG time. Please please pleaseeeee don’t rush this process. Onions need time to sit on a hot pan (but not too hot) and very slowly soften, sweeten and brown.
The thing that makes these onions super happy? Bacon grease. Don’t be afraid of this natural and beautiful fat. First you cook up your bacon, then leave about two tablespoons in the pan before you add the onion. The onion will soak up that flavor (we’re gonna call bacon grease “flavor” from now on so you don’t get scared) and it will taste incredible. Chopping up the bacon and adding it back in with rosemary made for a super savory situation. And because I can’t leave a good thing alone, I added DATES! Because a little bit of sweet always makes things better in my eyes.
I also think sweet potatoes are officially the perfect vehicle for any all other foods. I give you full permission to stop me when I put sweet potatoes on top of sweet potatoes… but until then… get ready for all of the SPs. I roasted these with olive oil, salt and pepper at high heat until browned. They also are still good when room temp. Win win win.
So much wonder in this! Please try.
This one bite is so full of hearty flavor that hits all kinds of happy spots on your tongue and in your belly.
Did I just combine all of my favorite things for an excuse to eat them all at once? Maybe… I was so close to adding avocado to this but I held back.
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Caramelized Onion & Bacon Compote on Sweet Potato Crostini
Ingredients
- 5 slices of thick sliced bacon
- 3 sweet onions, cut in half and thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Rosemary
- 3 dates, pitted & chopped
- salt and pepper
Sweet Potato Crostini:
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cook bacon in a skillet over medium high heat until cooked through and slightly crispy. Remove from pan, chop, and set aside. Pour out all but about 2 tablespoons of bacon grease from the pan. Reduce heat to medium, add onions to the pan and let cook until caramelized (about 30 minutes), stirring occasionally. They will be done when they are super soft and brown! About halfway through cooking the onions, add rosemary and chopped dates. Once the onions are caramelized, add in chopped bacon and season with salt and pepper.
Sweet Potato Crostini:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Thinly slice sweet potatoes into rounds, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and spread out in one even layer on a baking sheet. Make sure not to over crowd the pan so they can brown properly. Cook for 20-25 minutes, flipping over half way through, until lightly browned and toasted.
- Top crostini with compote! Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
I don’t know what I did wrong with these sweet potatoes, but they came out very soft and not chewy-tender. How could I have screwed this up? I wish there were more tips in the recipe to give me hints as to what not to do and what to look for. There were a handful of them from the back of the pan that were a little crispier, but the rest? Mushy! I love sweet potatoes, though, and they still do taste fabulous with the onions, so I might try this again and see if I can’t tweak the potatoes to come out chewier.
Sorry about that! Could be the width of them? The thinner the better on these if you want them to be harder!
Turned out amazing!
Great!!