How to cook Sweet potato

Sweet potatoes are one of the most common food items in different parts of the world. You may come across some people who call them ‘sweet potato’ and a few may call them ýam’. However, no need to get confused. Yams are a bit drier in texture when compared to sweet potatoes. They are delicious, healthy, and can be a very good ingredient for several dishes. From snacking to main dishes, a range of sweet potatoes recipes are available. You name a dish and sweet potato can be a good fit into it. Whether you are a fitness freak or a foodie, sweet potatoes can be your best friend for life. Staring from the dishes like baked sweet potato to sweet potato fries, you can have various food options to try over. This article is going to help you with lots of information regarding addition of sweet potato in your diet, recipes, health benefits and more.

How many Calories are there in a Sweet potato?

Have you ever thought how much calories you are consuming a sweet potato casserole. A cup of mashed sweet potatoes can provide you with 2.5gms of fiber. If you count on sweet potato calories, it contains 98.7gms of water along with fat, carbohydrate, fiber, and other nutrients including iron, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorus, and Selenium etc. A whole sweet potato adds up to Vitamin B, calcium, minerals and more. Consuming the skin of sweet potato can help you consume more nutrients.

How to identify a good sweet potato while purchasing

When you are purchasing sweet potatoes, they should be firm and fresh. The skin can be yellow, purple to brown. Just make sure that you are keeping them in a dry place and storing them for not more than 3-5 weeks. If you are among those who do not like to consume the skin of a sweet potato, you can bake it. On the other hand, wrap the potato in an aluminum foil, and put them in the coals. You can sprinkle a bit cinnamon, curry powder, and some cumin powder on sweet potato. In addition, adding cottage cheese with some baked sweet potato and olive oil can be an easy and healthy meal option.

How to cook Sweet Potato

It takes minimum effort to cook sweet potato for different dish ideas. Sweet potatoes are the source of all kinds of nutrients. When you roast sweet potatoes, they bring out their natural flavor. They taste delicious when roasted, and that too, without toppings. The natural taste of sweet potatoes is creamy. You can cook sweet potato casserole for a meal when there is a get-together with your friends. To bake them, you need to wrap the potatoes in foil and put them in the oven for a longer period of time. Placing them in the dying coals can make them softer, and when fully baked, you can slide a fork inside them.

For sweet potato lovers, there is a piece of good news. You can try baked sweet potatoes as well as sweet potato fries at home. People, who are concerned about fitness, generally like to stay away from fried or high-calorie food items. However, if you are making the sweet potato fries at home, you can cook them in an air-fryer or in the oven with a few drops of healthy olive oil. If you are fond of pancakes, you must try to add stuffed sweet potato pancakes to your eating habit. They are not just delicious but keep your stomach filled up for a long.

Why should you consume Sweet Potato?

Sweet potatoes have a huge amount of beta-carotene that works as an antioxidant in human body. Antioxidants may have the power to reduce the risk of prostate cancer and lung cancer. They can prevent the cellular damage by molecules known as free radicals. So, if you are concerned about your health and love to stay fit, sweet potato must be an important part of your daily diet.

How beneficial Sweet potato can be for your health?

Consumption of sweet potato is always healthier as it has numerous health benefits. Some of the major benefits are.

- Prevents Type 2 Diabetes

A huge number of health benefits you can have from a sweet potato. You may find it hard to decide how beneficial sweet potatoes can actually be. From recent studies, researchers have found that sweet potato can improve insulin sensitivity among type 2 diabetic patients. Fibers in sweet potatoes reduce the chances of type 2 diabetes in human body.

- Improved digestion

Sweet potatoes may help in a healthy bowel movement, and prevent constipation. This way it becomes easier to keep your digestion system healthy and put a potential support against colorectal cancer.

-Better Eye Health

Since Sweet potatoes have provitamin A in its beta-carotene, consuming up to a certain amount of Vitamin A regularly can help improve eyesight. Apart from better eyes, Vitamin A helps in maintaining your overall health.

-Boosting Immunity

A Sweet potato contains good amount of Vitamin C. People who eat a very little amount of vitamin C can develop scurvy caused by less collagen production. Consuming Vitamin C can help you boost your immunity system and prevent anemia as well.

Cooking Method of Sweet Potatoes

Whether you are cooking sweet potato casserole, baked sweet potato, or something else, the cooking method of sweet potatoes is no difficult. Four different ways are there in which you can cook sweet potatoes. The methods are – Boiling (known as open cook method), Pressure cook, Baking, and healthy steam cook method. Choose any of the methods that can help you cook the vegetables faster with sweet potatoes. Boiled sweet potatoes can retain a lot of beta-carotene, and make the nutrients more absorbable than it does for baking and frying. When you limit the cooking time, you can retain 92% of the nutrients. All you need is to cover the boiling pot and keep the lid tightly on it for approximately 20 minutes.

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