Baked sweet potato: how to make roasted sweet potato
Baked sweet potato is a delicious dish that has many properties. Discover everything about this vegetable, as well as its benefits and other uses in the kitchen. Prepare your baked sweet potato dish now!
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The sweet potato is a tuber, also known as sweet potato, sweet potato or sweet potato, which has hundreds of varieties spread throughout the world. The most common in Spain are the white sweet potato and the red sweet potato, whose interior of the latter is an intense orange color. The sweet potato is one of the foods that autumn brings us and its season goes from October to March, when it is at its optimum moment of consumption. That is why at this time we can find multiple recipes made with this tuber, among which are the baked sweet potato or sweet potato cakes, a well-known sweet recipe in the Valencian Community that is made with sweet potato.
Origin of the sweet potato
Sweet potatoes or sweet potatoes are another of the products that came to us from the Indies and that quickly took root in our culinary culture, especially in the south of Spain. In fact, at the beginning of the 17th century, the sweet potato was known throughout the national territory as the 'Malaga potato', since it was in that area of the country that its consumption became popular for the first time. It seems that the sweet potato was originally from South America where there is evidence of its cultivation 8,000 years ago due to the findings of representations of the sweet potato in numerous pre-Columbian ceramics and remains of said tuber in some of its tombs.
In addition, according to data from the FAO, the main producing countries are China, Uganda, Indonesia, Rwanda, Vietnam, Nigeria, India, Japan, Burundi and the USA. In Spain the main producing areas are Andalusia, the Valencian Community, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.
Sweet potato properties
The sweet potato has numerous benefits and nutrients for our health, take note of the properties of the sweet potato!
- Rich in carbohydrates: the sweet potato is a very energetic food, due to its richness in carbohydrates. The sweet potato has a sweet taste due to its high sugar content.
- Low in calories: although it is rich in carbohydrates, the sweet potato is low in calories, among other things, due to its high water content. The sweet potato or sweet potato contains about 115 kcal per 100 g. In addition, if it is cooked in a healthy way, such as sweet potatoes baked, boiled or cooked with the air fryer, it is a perfect food for all types of diets, including diets designed for weight loss.
- Source of vitamins and minerals: the sweet potato is rich in vitamins from groups A, C, E and minerals, such as potassium and manganese. Vitamins C and E and manganese contribute to the protection of cells against oxidative damage. Vitamin A is essential for the maintenance of normal skin and vision, and potassium contributes to the maintenance of normal blood pressure, favors the normal functioning of the nervous system and muscles. In addition, it is rich in calcium and fiber.
- High content of folic acid: essential vitamin for pregnant and lactating women.
In addition, starch is extracted from the sweet potato and it is very frequently used in human and livestock nutrition and as a raw material in the pastry and confectionery industry, even to obtain alcoholic beverages.
Tips for buying and preserving sweet potatoes
The sweet potato is a very fragile product, so when buying, we must choose those that have a firmer appearance. Once at home, they should be stored in a cool, dry, dark and well-ventilated place, where they can last up to ten days. eye! if the temperature is high, the sweet potato can germinate or ferment, so to avoid this, it is advisable to cook and keep the tuber in the fridge for a week, but never store it raw in the fridge.
What is the difference between sweet potato and potato?
The sweet potato, like the potato, is a tuber and its nutritional properties are very similar, although the sweet potato has more carbohydrates and a higher caloric content than the white potato; as well as a greater amount of sugars, so it has a sweeter taste. On the other hand, the sweet potato has more vitamins and minerals than the potato, while the latter contains more potassium and folic acid.
Although French fries are a world-renowned savory snack, a good alternative to this recipe can be sweet potatoes cooked in the air fryer or baked sweet potatoes cut into sticks that are crispy. Do you want to discover how to prepare baked sweet potato? Take note of the recipe that we present below.
Baked sweet potato ingredients
• 3 large sweet potatoes
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Cornstarch
• Spices to taste (ground black pepper, garlic powder, Herbes de Provence, etc.)
•Coarse salt
How to make baked sweet potato
1. Wash the sweet potatoes well and remove the skin.
2. Cut the sweet potatoes into sticks. eye! When cutting them, make sure that the pieces are the same.
3. Fill a saucepan with cold water and place the sweet potato sticks in the pot for 30 minutes.
4. Dry the sweet potato sticks with a cloth until they are dry.
5. Wrap a baking tray with baking paper.
6. Paint the sweet potato sticks with olive oil and later, coat them with cornstarch.
7. Place the sticks on top of the baking tray without piling them up and season them to taste.
8. Bake them at 220ºC for about 20 minutes. eye! you see turning them so that they are baked on both sides.
9. Take the sweet potato sticks out of the oven when you see that they are already cooked and crispy.
10. Once baked, let them cool down and sprinkle the salt on top.
Other tasty ways to cook sweet potatoes
Like potatoes, sweet potatoes cannot be eaten without cooking. With the application of different cooking techniques we can achieve dozens of dishes with sweet potatoes, both savory and sweet, or an excellent side dish for meat, fish and even rice and other cereals.
• Baked sweet potato with aluminum foil: it is the easiest and most popular way to enjoy it. You just have to wash the sweet potatoes, wrap them in aluminum foil and let the heat of the oven do its work. The result: a sweet, healthy dessert with a very pleasant texture, which can also be integrated into cakes and biscuits.
• Boiled sweet potato: if you don't want to turn on the oven, the sweet potato can be cooked cut into slices or cubes in the pan. Cook it peeled and then, with the meat already cooked, grind it until you have a rich puree or mix the cubes with other vegetables, meats and cereals.
• Grilled sweet potato: in order to reduce oil intake, the sweet potato can be grilled, once cut into not very thick slices.
Easy and delicious sweet potato recipes
• Turkey stew with sweet potato and asparagus
• Sweet potato toast
