Best Sweet and Savory Sweet Potato Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How do you enhance the flavor of sweet potatoes? ›

Dice the sweet potato, and leave the skins on. Then toss the chunks in a splash of tamari, oil, and maple syrup, and then dust heavily with chili powder, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Roast at 400 Fahrenheit for about 30-50 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to crisp up.

The cold water bath helps rinse the starch off the sweet potatoes so they're a bit more crispy.

Fruit and Vegetables

Carrot, cauliflower, coconut, corn, endive, garlic, ginger, lime, orange, persimmon, pineapple, potato, rosemary, spinach.

Chicken: Chicken, whether roasted, grilled, or pan-seared, complements the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes. You can season the chicken with herbs, spices, or citrus for a delicious contrast. Pork: Pork and sweet potatoes create a delightful combination.

Baking Soda – boiling the potatoes in baking soda draws out the starch and allows the outside to get brown and crispy. Sweet Potatoes – yams work fine too. Extra Virgin Olive Oil – gets infused with rosemary and garlic and is the key to getting that crispy exterior.

When sweet potatoes are boiled, the temperature doesn't get above 100°C, so this flavour development doesn't happen. The breakdown of starch into simple sugars during baking also helps by creating more substrates for these reactions, leading to a more fragrant and flavoursome result.

Even if you are making mashed sweet potatoes, they will taste better with oven-cooked potatoes. To bake sweet potatoes in the oven, preheat the oven to 400°F. Scrub the potatoes clean and pierce each one all over with a paring knife. Bake on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet until tender, about 45 to 50 minutes.

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.

Removing the skins removes some of the nutrients from the potato, so don't peel them if you're making healthy sweet potato recipes. The skin also helps the inside stay moist as the potato cooks.

What is the sweetest tasting sweet potato? ›

Which sweet potato is the sweetest? Sweetest is subjective but relatively speaking, Garnets and Hannahs are mildly sweet. Purple and Jewels are moderately sweet and the Japanese variety tend to be the sweetest.

The most common varieties in the U.S. are the Beauregard (the most widely grown cultivar), the jewel, and the garnet (also sometimes known as red yams).

Sweet potatoes tend to have a more tapered shape and may be firm or soft with thinner skin. Generally, sweet potatoes taste sweeter than yams. You will more readily encounter sweet potatoes during your regular grocery run, but if you spot a yam, which may be labeled "sweet potato," you'll know the truth.

Yogurt sauce + legumes

Top your sweet potato and yogurt sauce with crispy lentils or cooked black beans. Add leftover roasted vegetables (especially eggplant), sautéed onions or peppers, or fresh herbs or scallions if you have them. A little green sauce or salsa is nice here too.

This recipe is great for the holidays with all the flavours of fall packed into a simply stunning side dish. It looks beautiful and tastes incredible. If you are planning to use this for a family gathering, it holds up very well to being made the day before.

If you enjoy sweet potatoes, you can absolutely enjoy them daily. However, eating multiple sweet potatoes every day could cause a harmless condition called carotenodermia, where your skin turns yellow-orange. You may also want to be cautious about your sweet potato intake if you have a history of kidney stones.