Ode to Complex Carbs

If you need the biblical reasons to choose complex carbs rather than the simple neighbors, here you are.

We will set aside the health reasons. Today I will review the importance of these two kitchen staples and what they mean to me personally. The almighty legume and the impervious sweet potato.

First, the joys of the legume family. A hearty kidney bean-filled chili, or maybe a pot of Southern gold transmuted into black-eyed peas. These foods are a call from your brother; they are a hug from your mother after too long a gap in seeing one another. These foods are home. They bring meaning to what a "home-cooked meal" means. When I taste a good chili, I think of my father trying endlessly to show me "the right way" to season the beef before adding it to the crock-pot. I see him walking his slow cooker into a church building expecting 1st place in the chili cook-off (and hearing him slight the woman who actually won). I see a pot of overcooked black-eyed peas and smell my grandmother's dry-as-toasted-bone pork roast they used to accompany. I hear her telling my sister and me to "get the nice glasses and get some ice in them." Incredible memories viewed only through the portal of the unassuming legume.

Now the sweet potato. A dessert in the guise of a side dish. Leave it to the South to put a sweet root vegetable blended with butter - covered in either marshmallows or brown sugar - and then demand "something sweet" as a treat following the meal. While I cannot argue the merits of the sweet potato, I can argue its meaning to me. This ingredient cries out "reunion". No family event went without this staple. Death in the family? Sympathy souffle. Having a Merry Christmas? Potluck pie. That distant great-aunt that no one really vibes with came over? Just bake it and move on. This high-fiber missile has a hold on my family similar to quiet judgment and substance abuse. All hail the orange tuber.

Follow me into the fray. Respect the Complicated Carbohydrate.