Sweet Potatoes With Tahini Butter

Carla Lalli Music, a food writer and editor, is vehemently opposed to roasting sweet potatoes. ‘I don’t understand why people are constantly roasting them,’ she says. ‘Roasting just makes them more fibrous and leathery, and they never, ever really get crispy.’ Instead, she posits that steaming performs a kind of alchemy on sweet potatoes that roasting never does — the moist heat fluffs them into absorbent clouds. And to make up for the inherent blandness of the cooking method, she slathers them with a rich tahini butter spiked with soy sauce, which immediately melts into a mouth-smacking sauce. Her simple recipe ends with a shower of golden sesame seeds and a torrent of lime juice. Try it — every bite will surprise you with crunch, salt, umami and acidity to counterbalance the sweetness of the pillowy potatoes. —Samin Nosrat