28 Sweet Potato Recipes You'll Want to Make Forever (2024)

FAQs

Why do sweet potatoes take forever to cook? ›

Sweet potatoes are an incredibly large and dense vegetable, in their raw state, which means they take forever to fully cook. When the sweet potatoes are halved, the baking time is dramatically reduced.

“A general guideline to estimating how many sweet potatoes you need when hosting friends or family for a meal is one medium sweet potato per person,” Burgess says, as if she's done this many times before.

I love them roasted or microwaved, with chicken or pork; they're also great when combined with other root vegetables in a soup, stew or casserole. They even make a delicious entrée when sliced thin, layered with sliced apples, dotted with butter and baked like scalloped potatoes.

Bake, don't boil

Baking sweet potatoes caramelizes their natural sugars, especially when done whole. It intensifies their flavor and creates a richer taste compared to boiling, which can result in a watered-down, bland flavor.

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.

Use 1 medium sweet potato per person.

For a big spread with lots of side dishes, you'll want to have about four ounces (125 grams) of potato (that's precooked weight) per person. If you're serving fewer sides, you can up it to about eight ounces (250 grams) per person.

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.

How to tell if sweet potatoes have gone bad. If your sweet potato is soft in spots, smells rotten, or oozes a mysterious liquid, that potato should be discarded. Another sign that sweet potatoes have taken a turn for the worse is if they start growing stalky purplish sprouts.

Is it OK to eat sweet potatoes often? ›

Because of their higher sugar levels and high vitamin A content, you can likely enjoy them in moderation about two or three times per week. Eating these vegetables too often could lead to too much vitamin A intake or increase the potential for negative effects on your blood sugar.

It's best for raw sweet potatoes to not be stored in the freezer because they will spoil faster. You can store baked sweet potatoes or cooked yams in the freezer.

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.

Boiling sweet potatoes retains more beta-carotene and makes the nutrient more absorbable than other cooking methods such as baking or frying. Up to 92% of the nutrient can be retained by limiting the cook time, such as boiling in a pot with a tightly covered lid for 20 minutes.

A good rule of thumb for whole baked sweet potatoes: 45 minutes to 1 hour at 400 degrees F; 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes at 350 degrees F; 1 and 1/2 hours at 325 degrees F. You'll know the sweet potatoes are done by piercing the center of the sweet potato with the tip of a sharp knife; the flesh should yield easily.

Bake sweet potatoes at 400º F.

This temperature is hot enough that they won't take too long, but cooks them slow enough to really soften and sweeten the flesh. High heat, such as baking them at 425º, will result in potatoes that soften but do not get as creamy as my lower temperature method.

(Another hot tip if you're boiling your sweet potatoes: Don't overcook them! They tend to absorb water, which could make the filling watery.) So, say you do have some undercooked bits of sweet potato. You have two choices: Pick them out or bake your sweet potato casserole long enough to soften the underdone pieces.

Sweet potatoes generally cook faster than russet potatoes. However, the size of the potato and cooking method will affect the cooking time. Is it better to microwave or bake a sweet potato? A microwave is the fastest way to cook a sweet potato, however baking will result in a better texture.