Cooking with Sweet Potatoes 101

Sweet potatoes are such an underrated fall ingredient. They’re earthy and sweet, and they taste amazing with warming spices popular in many autumn dishes. You may be waiting to eat sweet potato until your family makes sweet potato casserole this Thanksgiving, but you could be enjoying them this whole season! Potatoes in general are a great way to bulk up a meal, and sweet potatoes give an extra dimension of flavor. They’re also a great source of vitamin A and fiber. Here’s some creative ways to make sweet potatoes a more regular ingredient on your dinner plate.

Roasted 

Possibly the most common way to eat any potato, other than standard baking or mashing, is roasting. Roasting sweet potato is particularly good because you can use it on its own as a side dish, put it in salads, tacos, rice bowls, or even in a pasta dish. Also, I believe roasting is the easiest way to cook a sweet potato–just toss in olive oil and spices and let it go for 30 to 40 minutes.  I highly recommend roasting it with olive oil, salt, pepper, smoked paprika and a touch of cayenne.

Curried

Adding sweet potato to your already tasty meal is a fantastic way to make it more filling and add a different element. One of my favorite ways to add sweet potato is in curries. There’s something about the way a savory, spicy sauce mixes with the vegetal sweetness of a sweet potato. Sweet potato is also good, and not used enough, in chili. I love making a standard vegetarian chili and putting chipotle powder and sweet potato in it. It brings new life to a classic dish.

Soup

Sweet potato soup is great because it tastes like it took hours when, in reality, it’s fairly simple. Just soften some onion, garlic and carrot in a pot. Then, add the sweet potato along with some vegetable or chicken stock and some spices and cook until the vegetables are super tender. Finally, just blend it up and enjoy! I’m utterly obsessed with Thai cuisine and although there’s millions of ways to make a sweet potato soup delicious, I love using coconut milk, red curry paste, ginger and a bit of peanut butter to really make the flavors of the sweet potato sing.