Are you in the mood for something savory or sweet? It doesn’t matter. If you have sweet potatoes at hand, you can create almost any type of dish you crave; from salads and stews to cakes or sorbet. That’s what I learned during my adventures trying to create a unique sweet potato recipe. No wonder everyone who tries them immediately falls in love with sweet potatoes.

Here is my latest take. The challenge is “sugar-free”. I didn’t think I can come up with a sugar –free recipe, but old Bulgarian traditions came to the rescue again.

As I was telling a friend the other day about my latest cooking experiments, she mentioned that she has found a great use for sweet potatoes: fillo pastry rolls stuffed with sweet potato and walnuts. Something we would make with pumpkin in Bulgaria, but made with sweet potatoes and raisins it eliminates the need for added sugar. Tasty and healthy. Love it!

Sugar-Free Sweet Potato Fillo Rolls

(makes 20 rolls)

• 2 medium sized sweet potatoes
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup raisins
• 4-5 tablespoons rum
• 1 sleeve fillo pastry sheets (I used Athens fillo which comes with two sleeves in a packet)  
•  1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 pinch salt
• ½ stick butter, melted

Thaw fillo according to package instructions (typically it takes two hours out of the freezer, or overnight in the fridge)

Set oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl soak raisins with rum. Use just enough rum to cover the raisins.

Peel sweet potatoes. Boil them for about 10-15 min until tender but not too soft. Let cool, then grate.

In a mixing bowl, combine grated sweet potatoes, chopped walnuts, rum raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Open fillo and spread flat. Place it vertically on the counter with short side facing towards you. You will use one sheet for each roll. There are 20 sheets in each sleeve.

Lightly brush the top sheet with melted butter. As you look at the sheet placed vertically, divide it in your mind in three vertical stripes. Spread two tablespoons of mixture in the middle stripe (try to keep mix in the bottom part of sheet). Fold the sides in and roll into shape. When you are rolling, the fillo in the part with the mix may break. That is why it is important to have enough length of the sheet free of mix so that it can cover the broken part as you continue rolling.  Repeat with rest of sheets. Arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet. Lightly brush rolls with butter before placing in oven.  Bake for about 30 min or until golden brown.