The Funky Cheese You Should Be Stuffing In Sweet Potatoes

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Baked into an ultra-indulgent casserole together with marshmallows and a sprinkle of brown sugar, deep-fried into sugary fries, or featured as the core ingredient of a simple sweet potato pie, sweet potatoes are endlessly adaptable — just like your regular spuds. But let's say you've served them a dozen times, and someone who regularly comes to your dinner table is still not convinced they're worth getting excited about. Here's a trick that'll change their mind for good: Stuff them with blue cheese.

Blue cheese and sweet potatoes shouldn't work — one's funky and sharp, the other mild and sweet — but they do. The pungent cheese cuts straight through the potato's natural sugars with its bright, almost spicy edge. The creaminess softens the aggressive funk just enough. What emerges is something balanced, sitting somewhere between sweet and savory on your palate.

You could also stuff your sweet potatoes with blue cheese sauce. Buying it premade is an option, but making it from scratch is simple; melt butter with flour to get a roux, slowly whisk in milk until thickened, then fold in blue cheese crumbles. It takes about 10 minutes. A sharp blue like Point Reyes works best, but any quality blue cheese will do the job. Season with salt and black pepper (or cayenne if you want heat), pour it into your split, baked potato, and top with chopped chives for color and freshness, and you're all set!

A blue cheese-stuffed sweet potato works fine solo, but at this point, why stop there? Add bacon crumbles. You get crunch plus that smoky salt hit. You can also use roasted garlic or caramelized onions in a pinch. Add any of these (or all of them) and the blue cheese will no longer be buried under a bunch of sweetness. The sharp, funky blue finally gets to do its job as the star of the show.

For game and movie nights? Try buffalo chicken. Shred a rotisserie chicken (Costco works), toss it in hot sauce, and there's your awesome savory-spicy garnish to pile onto your sweet potato. Top with another layer of blue cheese before you plate to help cut through the spice — and there you have a baked sweet potato with buffalo heat together with cool cheese funk.

The best part about a blue cheese-stuffed sweet potato is that you don't start from zero after you've put it together. You already have a solid foundation to work from — breakfast with a fried egg on top? Loaded up enough to be a lunch's main event? Chase whatever sounds good. You've got plenty of room to work here.