CSA Recipe #5 - Ham & Sweet Potato Kabobs in Mustard Bourbon Marinade

I made this one up on the fly.  I am on CSA box number 2 and in both boxes I got about six ginormous sweet potatoes - I started giving them away!  I know they are good for me and all but there are only so many ways you can cook one - baked, oven fries, casserole - but it is getting to be summer and we want to grill out.  So I pondered...

Then I got my order from Peaceful Pastures, a farm that treats their animals well, produces pasture fed meats that are organic and dee-lish!  Plus you get a bar of homemade soap (not sure of the connection but it's quite nice) with each order.  Well, when we got home and went through our order - I found that I received ham cubes...  Not the pre-cooked small chopped ham from the grocery.  I am talking chunks of really good quality ham.  So I asked around what to do with these?  Then I thought we should skewer them and grill them!  What goes with ham better than sweet potatoes?!  And thus this recipe was born.


It is gluten and dairy free, as well as clean eating friendly!

For the meat maranade:

• 3T maple syrup
• 6T Dijon Mustard (the kind with the white wine worked well)
• 3T bourbon (Since I am in TN - we used good o'Jack Daniels!)
• 3T Coconut Aminos (if you are ok with gluten you can use reduced sodium soy sauce here)
• 1lb Ham cubes (or you can cut a pork tenderloin into bite sized cubes and use them.

Combine all of the above in either a tightly sealed plastic container or a zip top baggie.  Make sure everything is mixed and coated well and then pop it in the fridge for at least 2hrs.

For the Sweet taters:

• 1 large or 2 medium sweet taters - peeled and cut into bite sized cubes
• 2T Maple Syrup
• 2t ghee (if you are good with dairy use a table spoon of real butter)
• 1t cinnamon
• 3T water

In a microwave safe dish that has a lid, put your sweet taters and the water.  Cover and cook for 3mins. When done, drain them and then add the maple syrup, cinnamon and ghee - toss until well mixed and ghee is melted.

Whats left:

You will just need 1 can of pineapple chunks - in juice drained

If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 5mins before putting your kabobs together.

When you're ready to assemble - alternate ham, sweet taters and pineapple - the grill them for about 10-15minutes - rotating half way through.

I served it all over rice and boy oh boy SO good!  I am probably going to soak a whole pork loin in the marinade next!