I was raving just last week about my new-found love of citrus . Last week it was lemons, this week it’s limes.

Specifically, lime juice and jalapenos made into a dressing for this awesome salad. It’s sharp and spicy and piquant enough to cut through the winter malaise from which I, for one, am definitely suffering.

So I thought I understood the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. Evidently I did not. After some research, here is what I am pretty certain is the case:

Yams are a starchy tuber eaten in many different cultures in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. They are difficult to find in the United States and chances are that vegetables you encounter called yams are actually a variety of sweet potato.

Sweet potatoes are a starchy tuber as well. They come in a huge number of varieties that can be orange or white. Color cannot be used to distinguish sweet potatoes from yams. In the US, the softer orange sweet potatoes have been called yams to distinguish them from starchier white varieties, but they are all sweet potatoes.

I share this information with you, because I was totally confounded when I bought vegetables labeled “sweet potatoes” and found they had white flesh once I peeled them. But I forged ahead, and I can now tell you that the white sweet potatoes are just as delicious as the orange ones. Yams be damned.

I was serving a crowd, so I doubled the recipe. I also made one small and one huge change. First, I skipped the cilantro, because while I am a cilantro lover I ate a lot of it with my CSA and also because it has this funny tendency to make everything you add it to taste primarily like cilantro.

Second, I cut the amount of olive oil WAY down. The recipe as written calls for 2 tablespoons for roasting and another six (!) for the dressing. When doubling the recipe, I probably used 3-4 tablespoons for roasting, but only about two in the dressing instead of the recommended twelve (!?!?!), which I think would have made this more of a soup.

Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad with Chili-Lime Dressing
from the New York Times

4 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large onion, preferably red, chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (ed. – more likely, less)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh hot chili, like jalapeño
1 clove garlic, peeled
Juice of 2 limes
2 cups cooked black beans, drained (canned are fine)
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put sweet potatoes and onions on a large baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil, toss to coat and spread out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, turning occasionally, until potatoes begin to brown on corners and are just tender inside, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven; keep on pan until ready to mix with dressing.

2. Put chilies in a blender or mini food processor along with garlic, lime juice, remaining olive oil (ed. – probably less) and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Process until blended.

3. Put warm vegetables in a large bowl with beans and bell pepper; toss with dressing and cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature, or refrigerate for up to a day.

Yield: 4 servings.

Canned black beans are a seriously overlooked convenience food. Even at my East Village supermarket, a can is only $1.29. They take less than five minutes to cook. And, most importatly, if you are willing to take just two seconds longer than the two seconds it takes to open the can, you can elevate them from a perfectly adequate Tuesday night meal to one that is actually quite tasty.

Usually, I add a bay leaf (remember to take it out before serving), a dash of cayenne, and a fair amount (maybe a teaspoon) of cumin. Sometimes you’ll need salt, which depends on the brand of beans you use (Goya is already salty enough, Progresso needs salt), and you’ll want to grind some pepper in there at the end. I had some mushrooms sitting around that were beginning to dry up, so I sliced those up and threw them in, too. You could also add raw or cooked onions, any number of pre-cooked veggies, and/or sour cream or cheese at the end. Whatever you put into black beans, they’ll thank you for it, and pay you back tenfold.

I served the black beans with a chicken breast I had breaded by first seasoning it with salt and freshly ground pepper and then dredging it in a mix of bread crumbs (packaged), cayenne, a little finely grated parmesan, and some dried oregano. Baked it in the oven for about 5 minutes on each side before running it through the broiler for about 2 minutes on each side to get some color. I also made a salad. The whole thing took maybe 15 minutes, with time for me to do the dishes while waiting for the chicken to finish cooking. If you really want a low effort meal, you could just scramble up some eggs. Or, make some white rice for the perennial (and un-pc) favorite moros y cristianos.