How do you easily cut sweet potatoes? – Sweet potatoes are a pretty firm vegetable, so you may be wondering how to soften sweet potatoes to cut them. Use a good chef’s knife, like the one I mention in the following section, to safely and easily cut sweet potatoes.
How long should I boil sweet potatoes to soften them for cutting?
Steps –
- Rinse and scrub the sweet potatoes under cold water. For a more nutritious mash, leave the skin on. For a smoother one, peel with a vegetable peeler.
- Cut into eighths and place in a large pot. Add enough water to just cover the potatoes.
- Boil sweet potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with a fork. It will take less time if you cut the sweet potatoes into smaller pieces.
- Drain and return to the pot.
Remove the boiled potatoes to make mashed sweet potatoes or continue on to another sweet potato recipe,
How long does it take to soften a sweet potato in the microwave?
How to Microwave Sweet Potatoes – Don’t bother covering your potato in plastic wrap or with a towel because the sweet potato comes in its own jacket—its skin! Instructions
- Clean sweet potatoes under running water with a produce scrubbing brush, and pat dry.
- Pierce the sweet potato skin with a fork 5 to 6 times.
- Place the sweet potatoes on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 5-10 minutes—five minutes to cook one sweet potato in the microwave, and add two minutes for each additional potato—rotating them halfway through.
- You are done microwaving your sweet potatoes when a fork spears into them easily. If they are too firm, continue to cook your sweet potatoes in the microwave in one-minute increments.
Should sweet potatoes be hard to cut?
Are you looking for healthy carbohydrates to add to your dietary intake? Sweet potatoes are one of the best, nutrient-rich carbohydrates that you can eat. Not to mention they are delicious. Many people shy away from eating sweet potatoes because they can be hard to prepare and cook.
Unless you want to steam for 30-45 minutes over the stovetop and be left with a mushy potato that is not too appetizing, you are required to peel and cut the sweet potato. Both of which can be difficult, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous. Why are sweet potatoes so hard to cut? Sweet potatoes are hard to cut because they are denser than most other fruits and vegetables.
Sweet potatoes are made up of compacted small molecules. Thus, requiring more strength and effort to separate, or cut, through the sweet potato. There are tips and tricks that you can use when preparing sweet potatoes to make them much easier to cut through.
Why is my sweet potato hard?
Storing Sweet Potatoes in the Refrigerator – The worst thing you can do with sweet potatoes is put them in the refrigerator. It’s too cold in there, which changes the potato’s cell structure and makes them hard in the center (even after they’re cooked). Luiz Anselmo / EyeEm/Getty Images
Is it better to boil or bake sweet potatoes?
I previously talked about the cancer fighting properties of sweet potatoes (See Anti-Cancer Potential of Sweet Potato Proteins ) and what would happen if you centered your diet around them ( The Okinawa Diet: Living to 100 ). It seems that the only potential downside to eating too many sweet potatoes is that you could get yellow palms (or nose as you can see in the video, The Best Way to Cook Sweet Potatoes ), a harmless condition called “carotenemia.” Caused by elevated levels of beta carotene in the blood, it was first noticed a century ago when carrots were introduced into infant diets.
It’s treated mostly by just reassuring parents that it’s harmless, but if we don’t want our child’s nose to be yellow, we can decrease their beta carotene intake and in a few months it will be gone. When picking out varieties at the supermarket, the intensity of the yellow or orange flesh color of the sweet potato is directly correlated to its nutritional content, so the more intense the better.
Though if you really want intensity, sweet potato varieties don’t just range from white to yellow and orange, but from pink to deep purple. The natural pigments that cause these colors may have special anticancer effects. What is the best way to cook sweet potatoes? Boiling may actually retain most of the antioxidant power of sweet potatoes, compared to roasting and steaming.
- If we compare baking to boiling microscopically, boiling helps thin out the cell walls and gelatinize the starch, which may enhance the bioavailability of nutrients.
- At the same time, the glycemic index of boiled sweet potatoes was found to be about half that of baking or roasting, so boiled sweet potatoes give us less of a blood sugar spike.
Make sure to keep the skin on, though. The peel of a sweet potato has nearly ten times the antioxidant power as the flesh (an antioxidant capacity comparable to that of blueberries). However, the peel’s nutrition really takes a hit when baked, which wipes out over two thirds of the antioxidants, whereas microwaving or boiling are comparatively much gentler.
Should I boil sweet potatoes with skin on?
Boiling sweet potatoes with skin –
While you might find peeled boiled sweet potatoes recipes, it’s advisable to leave the skin on when boiling sweet potatoes. This is because most nutrients are found next to the skin and on the skin, Sweet potato skin is full of fiber that will help your digestion. So when you peel the skin off before boiling, you’re not only losing fiber, but you are also exposing some phytonutrients that can be damaged by heat. If, however, your recipe demands peeled sweet potatoes, boil them then, peel them thereafter, this way you’ll be peeling the thinnest outmost skin.
Is it better to steam or boil sweet potatoes?
Steaming or Boiling on the Stovetop – Steam or boil sweet potatoes in their jackets to retain as much of their nutritional value as possible. Place a steamer basket in a wide, shallow pan with a lid. Place washed sweet potatoes into the steamer basket.
Fill the pan with water up to the bottom of the steamer basket. Season the sweet potatoes, cover the pan and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and let the potatoes steam for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on their size. This works best with smaller potatoes. Boiling sweet potatoes does leach out nutrients, but according to physician and author Dr.
Michael Greger, of NutritionFacts.org, boiling sweet potatoes lowers their glycemic index, which means you get less insulin spike after eating them. Place whole, washed sweet potatoes into boiling water and let them cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
What is the healthiest way to cook sweet potatoes?
Did You Know? –
- In addition to the root, sweet potato leaves and shoots are also edible and commonly eaten in some countries.
- 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. Cooking with the skin on further helps to minimize leaching of nutrients including beta-carotene and vitamin C.
Can you eat the skin on sweet potatoes?
Can You Eat Sweet Potato Skin? – Yes, you can eat sweet potato skin, whether it’s an orange, white or purple sweet potato. So the next time you make sweet potatoes, try keeping the skin on. Not only will it save you prep time and add a textural component to the dish, but there are also nutritional benefits to leaving the peel on.
Sweet potatoes are known for being good sources of vitamin A, vitamin C and fiber, and research suggests the peel is important for fiber intake. A 2021 study published in Agronomy examined various nutritional values of purple-fleshed sweet potatoes that were unpeeled and peeled, and also analyzed the peel itself.
They found that peeling the sweet potato led to a 64% loss of fiber compared to the unpeeled version. Researchers concluded that keeping the skin on a sweet potato “is the best condition to maintain the high fiber content.” 3 sweet potatoes on a designed background Credit: Getty Images / Pongasn68 Similarly, a 2022 study published in Food Research examined the potential health benefits of incorporating powdered sweet potato peel in cookies (the study refers to biscuits, a common term for cookies in English-speaking countries outside the U.S.).
The study found that dietary fiber content increased significantly when orange or purple sweet-potato-peel powders were added to the cookie dough. In fact, the cookies with sweet-potato-peel powders had over double the dietary fiber of the control cookies (increasing from 0.8% to 2.3% fiber by weight).
So, why is fiber so important? Well, fiber has a slew of health benefits, including helping lower your risk of heart disease, promoting healthy gut bacteria and helping you stay regular. Plus, fiber can help you feel full for longer periods of time, which may be beneficial for weight loss if that is your goal.
Can dogs eat sweet potato?
How Should I Prepare Them for My Dog? – When feeding your dog a sweet potato, make sure it’s cooked and that the skin is removed; leaving the skin on makes it harder for your dog to digest. You should never feed your dog a raw sweet potato. Not only are they difficult to chew, but they can upset your dog’s stomach and potentially cause intestinal blockage.
How do you soften yams?
How to Bake Yams – Learning how to cook yams in the oven means you can make a simple and nutritious side dish for meat loaf, steaks, grilled chicken, fish, and more. Here’s how to make baked yams whole:
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Scrub yams thoroughly with a vegetable brush ($6, Target ), then pat dry. Prick yams with a fork.
- Bake 40 to 60 minutes or until tender.
- Place each baked yam inside a kitchen towel. Gently roll to soften the flesh.
- Cut an X in the top of each yam, and press on the skin to push the flesh upward.
- If desired, serve with butter, brown sugar, and/or cinnamon.
Do you have to peel sweet potatoes?
– Sweet potato skins can be enjoyed by themselves or along with the flesh. Here are some delicious and easy ways to enjoy them:
baked, boiled, or friedstuffed deep-fried mashed with the fleshas fries or wedges
For most sweet potato recipes, it’s unnecessary to remove the skin. Nevertheless, certain dishes, such as desserts, are best made without the skins. summary You can eat sweet potato skins by themselves or leave them on in most recipes, though desserts usually exclude the peel.