You may have noticed a new item being featured on the menu at your favorite Mexican restaurant lately: Salsa macha. (Not to be confused with “matcha,” the Japanese green tea powder.) But what is this salsa, and how do you eat it?

“Salsa macha is a wonderful mix of fried chiles, garlic, peanuts, and sesame seeds all seasoned with a tiny bit of sugar, some salt, and some vinegar,” writes cook and author Julia Turshen in her book What Goes with What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities. “It’s complex and layered, and it is a great complement to roasted sweet potatoes.” Which is great news, given that sweet potatoes are fairly accessible year-round and roast beautifully.

“If you have any leftovers,” Turshen points out, “try the salsa on your eggs in the morning, or use it on grilled fish for delicious fish tacos.” Once you try a bite of salsa macha, you’ll see exactly what Turshen means: The savory elixir tastes amazing on just about anything that needs an extra zing of flavor — you don’t have to limit yourself strictly to roasted veggies.

“Dried chiles can be found at Mexican markets and often in the produce section of other grocery stores,” Turshen notes. But if your local market is out of chiles, you can also purchase them online — since they’re shelf-stable, they can be shipped without any stress. That means you can focus on flavor without stressing about tracking down rare, perishable products.

Julia Turshen’s Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Salsa Macha

Serves: About 4 to 6 as a side dish

Ingredients

For the sweet potatoes

2 pounds sweet potatoes, scrubbed, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt

For the salsa macha

½ cup neutral oil (such as vegetable, grapeseed, or canola)
2 dried ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
2 dried chiles de árbol, stems and seeds removed
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¼ cup salted roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons white sesame seeds (toasted or untoasted, either is fine)
2 teaspoons white vinegar (or any other type of vinegar)
1 teaspoon light or dark brown sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Roast the sweet potatoes: Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Place the sweet potatoes on a sheet pan, drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with a big pinch of salt. Toss well to combine and spread the potatoes out in an even layer. Roast the sweet potatoes, stirring them now and then, until softened, browned, and crisp on the edges, about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the salsa macha: Place the oil in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add one dried chile to the oil, and when it begins to sizzle, add the rest of the chiles, garlic, peanuts, and sesame seeds. Cook, stirring frequently, until the chiles are puffed and the garlic is light brown, about 3 minutes. Carefully transfer the mixture to a small heatproof serving bowl and let cool to room temperature.
Stir the vinegar, brown sugar, and salt into the chile mixture. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the chiles and peanuts are finely chopped and the salsa is the texture of a coarse pesto. Season to taste with more vinegar, sugar, and/or salt if needed. Transfer the salsa macha back to the serving bowl.
To serve, place the sweet potatoes on a serving platter with the bowl of salsa macha for everyone to spoon on top of their potatoes as they wish.