How to Buy and Cook Sweet Potatoes

The following basics on how to buy sweet potatoes, and how to cook or store sweet potatoes are helpful tips.

How to Cook Sweet Potatoes:

There are many ways to cook sweet potato: baked, boiled, candied, fried, grilled, mashed, pan-roasted, twice-baked. Find recipes for all of the ways to cook sweet potato.

Baked sweet potatoes are simply the best! Bake for about an hour at 375 degrees. Before baking, prick the spuds with a fork and wrap in foil. The foil will hold in the natural juices as the sweet potatoes carmelize. Yummy!!!

Canned sweet potatoes are pre-cooked, so add them at, or towards, the end of a recipe.

Cook sweet potatoes immediately after cutting and/or peeling; contact with air makes raw sweet potato flesh turn dark.

To slow down oxidation (darkening of the flesh) place peeled and/or cut sweet potatoes in a bowl or pot and keep them covered with water until you're ready to cook them.

Cooking makes the sweet potato's nutrients (e.g., beta carotene which the body converts to Vitamin A) bioavailable (easier for the body to absorb).

Boil sweet potatoes before peeling; skins slip off easily after they are done cooking.

How to Buy Sweet Potatoes:

Select sweet potatoes that are:

Clean, blemish-free, decay-free, dry, smooth, and firm

One decayed area can spoil (transfer an awful favor to) the whole sweet potato; cutting it away won't help - so, don't buy it!

How to Store Sweet Potatoes:

Do not refrigerate uncooked sweet potatoes

Refrigeration of uncooked sweet potatoes makes them starchy (their natural sugars turn to starch)

Store in a cool, dry area for up to about 7 days (they have a shorter home shelf life than white potatoes)

Store at 55-65 degrees F

Learn how to freeze raw sweet potatoes and other fresh vegetables and produce

How to Prep Sweet Potatoes:

Use a stainless steel knife when cutting; carbon blades make sweet potatoes turn dark

One medium 6-oz size cooked sweet potato equals about one cup of canned ones.

How to Serve Sweet Potatoes:

Sweet potatoes can be served in numerous ways: as listed above, diced and sliced for veggie trays, as snack chips, blended into a smoothie, as juice, etc.

Also, they go well with coconut, nuts and fruits, and spices like allspice, cinnamon, coriander, ginger and nutmeg.

Sweet potatoes can be an ingredient in many dishes including: casseroles, desserts (pies, cakes, puddings, cookies), breads, dips, salads, sauces, snacks, souffles, soups, and on and on . . .