10 Essential Sweet Potato Recipes | Easy, Quick & Budget Friendly! (2024)

FAQs

What tastes good on a baked sweet potato? ›

For a topping, stick to butter, Greek yogurt, or sour cream, or try adding a dollop of cilantro lime dressing, tzatziki, chipotle sauce, pesto, guacamole, or a drizzle of tahini sauce. If you have leftover baked sweet potatoes, save the soft flesh for another recipe.

For something smoky, tangy, and nicely salty, smear some plain Greek yogurt on your sweet potato, then layer with smoked fish, scallions, and briny capers. Roast whatever mushrooms you have until crispy. Thin some tahini, adding a little yogurt for creaminess. Or mix hummus and yogurt, and spread on your potato.

Baking can also cause an 80% drop in vitamin A levels, twice as much as boiling. Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato.

Wrapping sweet potatoes in foil helps in a few ways. It prevents the exterior of the tuber from drying out and overheating too quickly, which would minimize enzymatic activity; it also results in a more evenly cooked texture.

We've been playing around with forms of mashed sweet potatoes for over 200 years, enhancing them in different ways with butter, cream, sugar, honey, milk, molasses, egg whites, rose water (yep), and, of course, alcohol.

They're high in fiber and antioxidants, which protect your body from free radical damage and promote a healthy gut and brain. They're also incredibly rich in beta carotene, which is converted to vitamin A to support good vision and your immune system.

The healthiest ways to prepare sweet potatoes are to steam or boil them. You can also bake, roast, or fry sweet potatoes, but you should take care to limit these preparation methods, which will cause the sugars to break down in different ways and often include extra recipe ingredients like oil, butter, or sugar.

Vegetables – Just about any veggie on the planet accompanies sweet potatoes perfectly. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, zucchini, collard greens, carrots, cauliflower, green beans and bell peppers are great choices. Salad – A fresh, leafy green salad tastes great after a bite of sweet potatoes.

The theory is that soaking draws out starch from inside the potatoes, helping them crisp up. I've tested soaking sweet potato fries many times, and I've found that it doesn't make them much crispier, if at all.

There is not much difference between boiling sweet potatoes with the skins on versus peeling them, but you will get a boost of fiber and potassium if you keep the skin on. The skin also adds a subtle texture to each bite. If you're looking for a smoother mash, peel the potatoes first before boiling.

Should you poke holes in sweet potatoes before baking? ›

Do you have to poke holes in sweet potatoes before baking? Typically holes are poked into a sweet potato to prevent a potato exploding in your oven. However, the chance of that happening is low, and according to Lifehacker, sweet potatoes will retain more flavor if you don't poke them.

True yams are part of an entirely different genus (Dioscorea; sweet potatoes belong to Ipomoea in the morning glory family) and are more akin to yuca in texture and flavor. Yams are commonly used in Caribbean and West African cooking and can grow as long and thick as an adult arm.

NEVER BAKE POTATOES IN FOIL.

Foil wraps will not decrease baking time, but will result in a soggy potato interior with wet skin. Wrapping a baked potato in foil after it has been baked will allow you to hold up to 45 minutes, but the best method for holding a baked potato is in a bread warming drawer.

Vegetables – Just about any veggie on the planet accompanies sweet potatoes perfectly. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, zucchini, collard greens, carrots, cauliflower, green beans and bell peppers are great choices. Salad – A fresh, leafy green salad tastes great after a bite of sweet potatoes.

Dill, chives, borage, summer savory, and oregano also make good companion plants for sweet potato vines. Plant these aromatic herbs nearby to ward off the destructive sweet potato weevil. 9. Alyssum: Sweet alyssum flowers serve as a ground cover plant while also attracting beneficial insects like wasps.