Don’t know how to cook a sweet potato? Want to find another way to cook this healthy carb food?
Over the years, certain foods have garnered new attention for their health benefits, availability, affordability, and most of all…versatility. The sweet potato fits this bill to a tee! As a staple in many households year-round, in many countries of the world, the sweet potato, and its cousin the yam, has made its way back into our cultural cuisine.
As a favorite pantry staple, the sweet potato can be a “go-to” low-cal ( about 105 in an average-sized spud) healthy addition to many meals. Because of its high nutritional value, vegans and vegetarians often choose it for its high fiber and how it adds substance to a meal. The sweet potato is a fat-free and totally healthy carb!
Grilled Sweet Potato
The earliest cooking form of any starch-based, grill is applied to sweet potato too. Simply put, just throw a sweet potato directly on the grill, charcoal, or open fire. When done, just remove the shell and consume the flesh, as it is naturally sweet without the need for any additional seasoning.
Grilled ‘bake’ or Indirect grilled Sweet Potato
This method of cooking is like baking, but instead, on the grill, this is more applicable toward outside cooking while still preserve the moisture. This is done by wrapping sweet potato with foil before grilling. The result will be unstained sweet potato the can be split open and consume just like baking.
Baked Sweet Potato
It’s hard not to associate typical potato dishes without considering how the sweet potato can be adapted to create something new. For baked favorites, the sweet potato casserole is a typical addition to the American Thanksgiving table. It can add a new dimension to stuffing, or when paired with white potatoes, Yukon golds, and redskins the combination makes a colorful tasty side dish to any buffet. If you love the decadence of the pub-style potato skins, just add cheese and bacon to a crisply baked shell for a great twist. Like other root vegetables, pairing the earthiness of the potato with nuts, creams, and a little brown sugar or maple syrup works well too.
Boiled Sweet Potato
This is the most common method to handle a sweet potato. Just remember that after washing, don’t pierce the skin, leave it intact and throw in the pot. Also, do not add too much water for boiling, and sprinkle in some salt to enhance the potato sweetness. The only drawback of this method is sometimes sweet potato come out too soft on one side vs another, so remember to switch side in between would help.
Microwave Sweet Potato
In its purest form, this spud does very well cooked in its own skin, either in the microwave or a moderate oven. Prick it a few times with a fork to avoid steam buildup, and enjoy it popped oven with butter, salt, and pepper-like any potato. This is also the easiest way to get potato pulp. For recipes that call for “mashed” potato, this is easier than the work of peeling and boiling one by one. The pulp freezes very well and is a great base for a harvest soup, dip, or spread.
Steamed Sweet Potato
Compare to boiling, this method cooks sweet potato through the heat of the steam instead of direct contact with water, thus losing less nutrition and sweetness The result is more uniformly done too. However, a steamer or steaming basket is needed, thus present more cleaning to do afterward.
Sauteed Sweet Potato
Say ‘stir fry’, this method involves cooking chunked sweet potato with a low level of oil and some sort of sauce or seasoning.
Fried Sweet Potato
Can the sweet potato become a hash brown? A latke? A French fry? Certainly! However, due to the higher natural sugar content, sliced or shredded sweet potato can burn quickly when fried at high temperatures, which is always required to get crispy. For oven frying, turning the pieces often helps, as well as the addition of a little olive oil.
Broiled Sweet Potato
Sweet potato can be broiled too, you just have to cut them down before. This gives quickly cook sweet potatoes.
Raw Sweet Potato
Sweet potato can be consumed raw by grating into slaw and salad. You could also add raw chunks to any soup, stew, or curry dish to create a little middle eastern flair.
Crockpot sweet potatoes
Yes, you could also throw sweet potato into a crockpot along with other ingredients to have that dinner ready without any constraint too.
Simply put, sweet potato could go anywhere regular potato can.
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