Roasted sweet potatoes and onions bathed in Cuban garlic mojo, a simple traybake built on the island's classic citrus-garlic sauce.
Mojo criollo - a punchy sauce of garlic, sour orange and olive oil - is Cuba's answer to a marinade, usually spooned over roast pork or yuca. This traybake borrows that flavor and pours it over sweet potatoes and onions before roasting, so the vegetables caramelize while soaking up all that garlic and citrus. The important move is making the mojo hot: garlic is briefly fried in oil until just golden and fragrant, then citrus juice is added off heat, which tempers the raw garlic bite while keeping the sauce bright. Half goes on before roasting to season the vegetables as they cook, and half is reserved to spoon on fresh at the table, so you get both a deep roasted garlic flavor and a sharp citrus finish. It's rustic, single-tray cooking - a Cuban countryside approach to vegetables rather than a formal dish, meant to sit next to roast meat or black beans and rice.
Serves 4
Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Toss sweet potato wedges and onion with 3 tbsp olive oil, cumin, oregano and 1 tsp salt on a sheet pan.
Roast 30-35 minutes, flipping halfway, until the sweet potatoes are deeply browned at the edges and tender when pierced.
While the vegetables roast, heat the remaining olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add all the garlic and cook 60-90 seconds until just golden - do not let it brown or it turns bitter.
Remove the garlic oil from heat and carefully stir in the citrus juice and remaining salt; it will bubble and smell sharp - that's correct.
Pour half the warm mojo over the roasted vegetables while they're hot and toss. Finish with cilantro and serve the remaining mojo on the side.
Add citrus juice off the heat, not into hot oil directly on the stove - it can splatter violently and also mellows the raw garlic better this way.
Cut sweet potato wedges to a uniform thickness so they roast evenly; thinner pieces at the edges will burn before thick ones cook through.
Use a light hand frying the garlic - golden, not brown, or the mojo turns acrid.
Use yuca (cassava) instead of sweet potato for a more traditional mojo pairing, boiling it first until tender before roasting to crisp the edges.
Add a sliced fresh chile to the mojo oil with the garlic for a spicier version.
Roast plantain chunks alongside the sweet potato for extra sweetness.
Refrigerate up to 3 days. Reheat in a 400°F oven for 10 minutes to re-crisp the edges; the mojo can be stored separately and spooned on after reheating.
Mojo criollo, built on sour orange and garlic, traces to Cuba's Spanish and Canary Islands settlers and remains the everyday marinade and sauce for roast pork, yuca and plantains across the island.
Yes - mix roughly 2 parts orange juice with 1 part lime juice to mimic the tartness of sour orange (naranja agria).
The garlic was likely browned too far. Fry it just until pale gold and fragrant, then pull the pan off the heat immediately.
Yes, it keeps well refrigerated for up to a week; just warm it gently before using since the olive oil will solidify when cold.
Per serving (320g / 11.3 oz) · 4 servings total
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