Reader Help: Sweet Potato Recipes

By Sarah

At the recommendation of our very own Elisabeth, I recently signed up for an organic fruit and vegetable delivery service. Since I have to go to the grocery store pretty often, the idea of coming home from work to a box of fresh fruits and vegetables was appealing. Plus, the idea of getting some obscure vegetable intrigued me. Until I opened my first box yesterday and saw sweet potatoes.

You see, I do not like sweet potatoes. I have tried them every which way, but just can't seem to get on board. When people started deep frying them to make sweet potato fries, I thought, Genius! A french fry is something I can get behind! But nope, sweet potato fries didn't do it for me either.

So, my question to you today: What should I do with these sweet potatoes to make them -- how do I put it? -- less sweet potato-y? Any go-to recipes you have for sweet potatoes? I am all ears, err, eyes! (Lame potato joke, sorry.)

{Photo credit: Yours truly}

Comments

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

I don't like sweet potatoes either, but my husband loves them. The one way that I've found to make them palatable is to mix them in with a bunch of other veggies. So, this isn't a recipe per se, but we will buy some parsnips, carrots, red potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

Chop everything up into small squares (maybe 1/2 inch to 1 inch big). Put them onto a a foil-lined cookie sheet. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, pepper and some spices. (Cayenne pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, what have you.) Put them into a 425 degree oven - stirring occasionally - until all the veggies are brown around the edges.

[Natalie (The Sweets Life)]

Yes yes yes! Try this sweet potato gnocchi...a little time intensive but I don't think it tastes super sweet potatoey and it is SO good!
http://www.thesweetslife.com/2010/04/pesto-sweet-potato-gnocchi-with-spinach.html
http://www.thesweetslife.com/2010/04/sweet-potato-gnocchi.html

[K]

I love sweet potatoes so I'm probably no help. I usually make baked sweet potatoes or sweet potato fries (baked) but next on my agenda is sweet potato chips! I am going to use my food processor to slice them thin and then lightly coat in olive oil/salt and bake them.
I've also made mashed sweet potatoes with a little butter and cinnamon.

[kathyc]

Sweet potato quesadillas are my family's fave. Just mash some up, add jalapeno bits (fresh or canned)to desired hotness. Spread some on, sprinkle with cheese and grill in lightly oiled pan. SO GOOD!

[sarah marie p]

I don't have any recipes but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your potato joke. It was SWEET! Heee!

[Trysha]

I love sweet potatoes. I have half of one almost every night with dinner (I treat it like my dessert with some cinnamon...brown sugar if it's been one of those days)

The sweet potato gnocci Natalie linked to sounds delicious. :)

[Katrina]

Recently a friend made me this for dinner - it ends up being a much different taste than sweet potatoes are usually, so you might like it. Plus, it's easy and healthy!

You bake a sweet potato (one per person) until nice and soft.

Topping: saute onions in a little olive oil until they're a little soft, then add diced tomatoes, coriander, cumin, and salt to taste. You could add other things here as well - this dish really lends itself to innovation and whatever you've got that needs to get used before it goes bad! Cook for about 10 minutes - just until warm and soft.

Split the sweet potato, like you would a regular baked potato, then add a big helping of the topping on top. Then, feel free to jazz up with other toppings - my friend added cilantro, a little raw onion, slices of avocado, and a few squeezes of lime juice.

So delicious!

[Ginger]

One thing we do that makes them less...sweet potatoey is to bake them to soft (but not to mushy) and then treat them like a baked potato with butter, sour cream, chives, some cheese, the works. The savory flavors help balance some of the sweetness of the sweet potato.

[Emiliy]

my mom (and grandmother and great grandmother) used to make sweet potato casserole. She would mix pineapples, butter, brown sugar and pecans with mashed sweet potatoes and top them with marshmalows which she then toasted. I'm not sure the exact quantaties of each ingredient but it is oh-so-good. Tastes more like a dessert and isn't too sweet potato-ish.

[Maura]

I looove mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar, burbon, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter. My mom adds a "crunch" topping with pecans, oatmeal and more brown sugar on top, like a cookie/cake. Add enough burbon and you won't taste anything else. KIDDING!!

Good luck.

[Erin]

Okay, I'm going to share my favorite sweet potato/yam recipe (either works well for this dish). Peel, then cut them into 1/2 inch cubes. Saute in a skillet with some oil (I use olive oil) until soft inside, slightly crunchy outside. Add taco seasoning. Lots and lots of taco seasoning. Use in place of taco meat, or meat in a burrito. The taco seasoning and lettuce, tomato, cheese, cilantro, and lime flavors camouflage the sweet potato-eyness very well, and it makes an inexpensive and family-pleasing vegetarian meal. Hope this helps!

[kat]

sweet potato FRIES!

slice them very thin, coat with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake (or fry but less healthy). goes great with a burger. mmmmm.

[anna]

i feel the same way about sweet potatoes. when i got a bunch in my csa i made sweet potato quick bread. doesn't taste sweet potato-y at all. even my husband who HATES sweet potatoes enjoyed it.

[Elsha]

I made this recipe for the first time last week, and it was very good and not sweet-potato-y. It's a weight watchers recipe, so it's good for you too:)

3/4 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 medium sweet potato(es), peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 large onion(s), chopped
29 oz canned diced tomatoes, salsa-style with chiles, undrained 14 1/2 oz fat-free chicken broth
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 cup(s) frozen corn kernels, not thawed
Instructions
Mix all ingredients, except corn, in a 4-quart or larger slow cooker; cover and cook on low heat for 6 hours.
Stir in corn and cover slow cooker; cook on high heat until chicken is no longer pink in center and vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes more. Yields about 1 1/4 cups per serving. (5 pts a serving for anyone who's wondering.)

I'm not a stickler for doing things exactly like the recipe, but I know some people are so I copied it exactly. Also, I've never seen "salsa style" diced tomatoes. I just put in diced tomatoes and a can of mild diced chilies. We ate it with tortilla chips (delicious) or it would be great with cornbread.

[Annie]

Funny - we just signed up for one of these as well. I took it easy when setting up my exclusions list (does your service offer this?) thinking that I'd like to try some of these new veggies before deciding I didn't like them. HOWEVER, I knew I just couldn't get behind the swiss chard that was scheduled to come in my first box, so I definitely made it know that I wanted something else in its place. And you can guess what came. In abundance. SWEET POTATOES! I was going to link you to the above sweet potato gnocchi recipe...but I see that Natalie already did for me! That's where my sweet potatoes are headed!

[Annie]

Hey! I'm looking at your photo up there and that's looking mysteriously identical to my sister-in-law's box that came yesterday. (we receive on alternate weeks, so mine won't come again until next week). ANYWAY. Are you doing Farm Fresh To You?

[Home Sweet Sarah]

Hey, thanks for all the recommendations, ladies (and gents? Nope, you're all ladies!)

I can't wait to try some of this stuff out!