Editor's Note: Updated to include missing ingredient, 1 cup sweet potatoes, mashed and cooled.
We don’t think too much about sweet potatoes until Thanksgiving and Christmas, when their rich orange color is an ideal complement to holiday meals.
But we should; they are amazingly high in nutrition and just coming into their local season now.
A versatile vegetable, I like them mixed with other fall root vegetables and roasted with a little oil and seasoning, although they are just as good if you bake or microwave them, then top them with butter, salt and pepper. Sweet potato fries, which often accompany restaurant entrees in place of French fries, are also a good way to enjoy them.
I know that adding brown sugar is popular, but in my opinion they have just the right amount of sweetness on their own. While I feel that way, candied sweet potatoes, made using brown sugar have long been my family’s favorite.
That’s OK too, since I am in favor of eating them any way you can. They are a complex carbohydrate, containing plenty of fiber, which breaks down slowly to help keep blood sugar stable. They also are rich in magnesium, which has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety.
In addition to B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium and potassium, they contain 102 percent of the vitamin A you need each day. This helps maintain eye health and boost the immune system, is good for the heart, kidneys and reproductive system.
Many folks think yams and sweet potatoes are interchangeable, but they are two different vegetables. Sweet potatoes, which are grown in Pennsylvania, are roots of plants that are in the morning glory family. Yams are tubers, like white potatoes.
Americans eat an average of 5.7 pounds of sweet potatoes each year, compared to 120 pounds of white potatoes. This recipe from therecipecritic.com is one way to increase consumption:
1 cup sweet potatoes, mashed and cooled
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup milk
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×5 bread pan with pan spray. Set aside.
2. If your sweet potatoes are not already cooked, boil a medium pot of water and add peeled and chopped sweet potatoes. Boil for 12 minutes until fork-tender. Drain and let cool before mashing or running through a potato ricer.
3. In a large bowl combine the brown sugar and oil. Add the eggs and mix until just combined.
4. In a medium bowl add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Whisk to combine.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. Gently stir in the mashed sweet potatoes.
6. Add the batter to the prepared bread pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Let cool completely before slicing.
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