17 Must-Try Sweet Potato Recipes to Include in Your Fall Menu (2024)

FAQs

What does sweet potato fall under? ›

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable.

For a topping, stick to butter, Greek yogurt, or sour cream, or try adding a dollop of cilantro lime dressing, tzatziki, chipotle sauce, pesto, guacamole, or a drizzle of tahini sauce. If you have leftover baked sweet potatoes, save the soft flesh for another recipe.

Sweet potatoes are a healthy root vegetable chock full of antioxidants that protect your cells from damage. Plus, the nutrients in sweet potatoes are excellent for your gut, eyes, immune system, and more. Sweet potatoes are rich in vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and zinc.

Sweet Potato

They also contain potassium, manganese, copper and biotin — and they taste great, too! Although they are generally available year-round, their harvesting season is fall and winter, with varieties ranging from mildly sweet to very sweet.

Sweet potatoes can be white, yellow, red, purple or orange. The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are sweeter than the other varieties. You would have to eat 23 cups of broccoli to take in the same amount of vitamin A that is in one sweet potato.

Browning butter packs in tons of flavor, without dulling the sweet potatoes. Slow-roasting the sweet potatoes activates endogenous enzymes that bring out their natural sweetness. A touch of maple syrup, butter, and a bit of chopped thyme are the only embellishments these naturally sweet sweet potatoes need.

Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato. Boiling may theoretically be best, but sweet potatoes are so incredibly healthy that the actual best way to prepare them is whichever way will get you to eat the most of them!

Some recipes for homemade sweet potato fries ask you to soak the fries before cooking. The theory is that soaking draws out starch from inside the potatoes, helping them crisp up.

Top whatever favorite taco toppings you have on hand: Raw or pickled onions, cilantro, scallions, radishes, sour cream, avocado, and definitely hot sauce. Or make these sweet potatoes with guac, black beans, and queso fresco.

Do you have to put holes in sweet potatoes before baking? ›

Do you have to poke holes in sweet potatoes before baking? Typically holes are poked into a sweet potato to prevent a potato exploding in your oven. However, the chance of that happening is low, and according to Lifehacker, sweet potatoes will retain more flavor if you don't poke them.

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.

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.

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.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes are considered starchy vegetables given their high-carb content, which provides an energy boost. Potassium. Fun fact: Potatoes and sweet potatoes contain more potassium than a banana. (Learn about other foods packed with potassium.)

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable.

Sweet potatoes are root vegetables that are an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and plant compounds, including beta-carotenes. They are good value for money, count as one of your 5 a day and make an easy, nutritious swap for other carb-rich staples.

Nutrition Information

1 cup of raw sweet potatoes counts as 1 cup from the ChooseMyPlate.gov Vegetable group. It all counts! Fresh, frozen, canned, and even vegetable juice- all types of veggies count toward your MyPlate goal.