From “The Culinary Canine”: Brown Rice Arancini with Sweet Potato and Ground Chicken

1 sweet potato
11⁄2 cups short-grain brown rice
2 tbsp. olive oil
33⁄4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1⁄2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 whole egg
1 cup spinach, steamed and chopped fine
1 cup chicken, cooked

Roast the sweet potato at 350 degrees for 40–50 ­minutes until tender. Scoop the flesh from the skin, then mash the flesh with a fork. Set aside.

Cook the rice risotto-style: Heat the chicken broth in a saucepan to a simmer. Set aside. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the rice and sauté for 1 minute until it becomes translucent and well coated with oil. Keeping the saucepan over medium heat, ladle in one-third of the chicken broth, and stir until all of the liquid is incorporated. Add another third of the broth and, again, stir until all of it is absorbed. Repeat with the final third of the chicken broth.

Stir half of the Parmesan into the cooked rice. Allow the rice to cool slightly — about 5 minutes.

Whisk the egg in a bowl and temper in some hot rice. Incorporate the rest of the rice. Work quickly so as not to scramble the egg.

Place one-quarter of the egg/rice mixture into a food processor and puree it until smooth. Stir the pureed ­mixture back into the rest of the rice, then set aside and allow the rice to cool to room temperature.

Combine the sweet potato, spinach, remaining Parmesan cheese, and chicken; this will be the filling. Set aside.

TO FILL THE ARANCINI:

Have a bowl of warm water at hand to keep your fingers clean and the rice from sticking to you. Dip your hands into the water, then take a 1⁄4-cup-sized chunk of rice into the palm of your hand. Flatten the rice out to a disk about 21⁄2 inches in diameter (or about the size of your palm). Place 11⁄2 teaspoons of the chicken filling in the center and gently fold the rice around the filling. Roll into a uniform ball and set aside on a ­baking sheet. Repeat the process until all of the rice and filling is used up.

Serve them cold or coat them with egg, dip them in whole-wheat bread crumbs, and bake them at 350 degrees for 12 minutes on a lightly oiled baking sheet.