Sweet Potatoes in the Kitchen

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Sweet Potato Recipes+−
In the Kitchen+−

Sweet potatoes are one of the most versatile veggies! I love including these tubers as an excellent, nutrient-dense source of carbohydrates for my family, who love them! Their natural sweetness pairs well with virtually any protein, and adding a little salt and black pepper helps to balance out their flavor. I’ve found many diverse ways to cook sweet potatoes—from sweet to savory, the options for sweet potato recipes are limitless.

They can be prepared in a multitude of ways including baked sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, boiled sweet potatoes and more. (Baking your sweet potatoes will concentrate their flavor as opposed to boiling, which can dilute it). If you’re aiming for that sweet-savory combo, try adding a touch of brown sugar, maple syrup, chives, or even marshmallows—especially for holiday favorites like sweet potato casserole or twice baked recipes.

For best results when baking or roasting, always start by preheating your oven and placing your cut sweet potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet or sheet pan lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. This ensures even cooking and easier cleanup.

Sweet potatoes are great in soups, stews, stir fries and casseroles. And, who doesn’t love sweet potato fries!? You can make them in the oven or the air fryer for a crispy side dish with a shorter cook time—perfect for busy weeknight dinners. For crispy skin and caramelized edges, toss wedges with olive oil, sea salt, paprika, garlic powder, and cumin before roasting. Cook until fork-tender.

You can even eat sweet potatoes raw, making them a great portable snack and an ideal way to boost your daily serving of veggies. Try adding julienned raw sweet potato to salads or cutting wedges lengthwise for dipping! If you’re short on meal prep time, wash and poke holes in sweet potatoes before placing in the microwave for an easy and quick side-dish. Total time required will depend on the size of the potato, but it will be much quicker than typical baked sweet potato recipes!

Make sure to choose the best sweet potato variety for your recipe. For example, keep in mind that yams and sweet potatoes are not the same (despite common confusion). Purple and Japanese sweet potatoes tend to be less sweet, whereas orange varieties range from delightfully to overpoweringly sweet. If you’re making sweet potato fries, they will turn out best when using varieties with a naturally low water content. For example, orange sweet potatoes tend to have much higher water content than purple or Japanese varieties, which is why the latter are my favorite varieties for making fries. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge, and reheat in the oven or air fryer to preserve texture.

Sweet potatoes can even replace buns, be made into toast, and spiralized into noodles. Stuffed sweet potatoes make a fun, filling meal and sweet potato chips make a great salty, crunchy snack. There’s nothing that this delicious veggie can’t do! Another sweet potato product which is handy to have in your pantry is sweet potato noodles (a.k.a. japchae noodles or Korean glass noodles) – these are inexpensive and easy to find at your local Asian market.

For baking you may want to try sweet potato powder (sometimes labeled as sweet potato flour), which is made from ground dried whole sweet potatoes and retains its vibrant orange colour. It makes for an interesting flour because it adds fiber and absorbs liquid, so it has more ability to hold baked goods together (making it a great gluten-free flour substitute). In contrast, sweet potato starch—also sometimes called sweet potato flour—is a fine white powder that works well as a cornstarch or arrowroot replacement but has little ability to bind baked goods together. You can even use pureed sweet potato when baking (similar to pureed pumpkin). Not only will it act as a binder and add bulk to the recipe, it will also add some sweetness without the use of added sugars plus their flavors are often well camouflaged by other ingredients. This is a great way to sneak in some extra veggies!

And, don’t forget, it’s beneficial to eat or prepare your sweet potatoes with some type of fat, such as extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil to boost the absorption of β-carotene (precursor to vitamin A).

Sweet Potato Greens

An image of stir-fried sweet potato leaves.

Sweet potato leaves, stems and stalks are highly underutilized in Western kitchens but they’re tasty and surprisingly nutritious! If you find some at the store—or better yet, grow your own—why not give them a try?

Sweet potato greens can be eaten raw, but have a strong flavor. Similar to turnip greens, they are bitter and a bit tough. In order to reduce the bitterness of mature leaves, the greens can be boiled in salted water for 5 to 7 minutes before using them in other recipes. (If you’re growing your own sweet potatoes, you can harvest younger and more tender leaves, which have a milder flavor.) Try substituting sweet potato greens in recipes where you typically use spinach, kale, Swiss chard or collard greens. Add them to green smoothies, soups or stir-fries or sauté with olive oil and garlic. You can even roast them with oil and salt to make green chips or toss them in a salad.

Any way you eat them, and there are so many ways to eat them, both savory and sweet, sweet potatoes are a welcome addition to any meal! With their naturally sweet flavor, versatility, and wide range of nutrients, sweet potatoes make it easy to add more veggies to your plate in both new recipes and comforting favorites.