15+ Sweet Potato Recipes You'll Love (2024)

FAQs

What does eating sweet potato everyday do? ›

Heart health: Studies have suggested that sweet potatoes may reduce bad cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, prevent diabetes, and maintain healthy blood sugar levels. All these factors protect and lower the risk of heart events.

“A general guideline to estimating how many sweet potatoes you need when hosting friends or family for a meal is one medium sweet potato per person,” Burgess says, as if she's done this many times before.

While Beauregards may be the most common sweet potato, Jewels are right next to them in terms of being a great, classic sweet potato. They have a pretty, thin orange skin, and bright orange flesh that screams "sweet potato." (Or "yam," wrong as that may be. Shrug.)

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.

As we know, sweet potato has several benefits that make it worth including in your weight loss diet. So, by incorporating it into healthy meals and watching your portion sizes, you may find that it does support your weight loss goals and results in getting rid of unwanted belly fat.

Allow the mashed sweet potatoes to cool completely, then transfer them (in serving size portions) to zip-top bags or other freezer-safe containers. For added protection, wrap in at least one layer of foil. Freeze flat for up to six months. Thaw in the refrigerator.

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.

How long sweet potatoes last in normal room temperature depends on many factors, and it's best to keep them in a pantry to last 3–5 weeks. You can also store sweet potatoes in the fridge for 2–3 months, or freeze them to last even longer.

According to the National Institutes of Health, if you eat a whole medium sweet potato (the size of the spud you might eat with fish or as the main dish of a veggie-forward meal), you'll get more than 500 percent of your daily vitamin A.

What makes sweet potatoes taste better? ›

Freeze Time for Sweeter Sweet Potatoes

So if you want a sweet, sweet potato, you have to cook it until it reaches 135–170°F (57–77°C). And you want to keep sweet potatoes in that range for as long as possible. That will maximize how sweet the potatoes taste.

Farm Facts: Sweetpotatoes

Producing 50% of the sweetpotatoes grown in the U.S., North Carolina ranks as the No. 1 sweetpotato producing state. The sweetpotato was designated as the Official Vegetable of the State of North Carolina in 1995.

Sweet potatoes tend to have a more tapered shape and may be firm or soft with thinner skin. Generally, sweet potatoes taste sweeter than yams. You will more readily encounter sweet potatoes during your regular grocery run, but if you spot a yam, which may be labeled "sweet potato," you'll know the truth.

Sweet Potatoes and Health

Sweet potatoes with orange flesh are richest in beta-carotene. Sweet potatoes with purple flesh are richer in anthocyanins. Beta-carotene and anthocyanins are naturally occurring plant “phyto” chemicals that give vegetables their bright colors.

Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of Vitamin A, which may protect skin from the sun, helping to prevent sun burn, dryness and wrinkles. It also may help to bring a nice glowing tint to your skin! Sweet potatoes are also a good source of Vitamin C, which creates collagen.

While no specific amount of sweet potatoes is recommended, Sheth encourages her clients to enjoy no more than one sweet potato daily to allow for various other vegetables in their diet.

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 potatoes are a good source of beta-carotene. The body converts this compound into vitamin A, which is linked to hair health.