What do you do with your sweet potatoes?

You can do a number of things with sweet potatoes. This amazing food can be made into so many meals and all you have to do is think about the veg and the protein. Despite the name ‘sweet potato’ it’s actually a root vegetable.  This root vegetable is packed full of vitamin A and carotene. Also surprisingly it has vitamin C in them to. Making it really good to add into your weekly diet. I’m going to tell you a couple of the ways to cook these. This sweet versatile vegetable is something you need to try. Over in North America at Thanksgiving they like to mash them and add marshmallows, sugar and pecans. Only try this once a year because its very calorific. ha

Roasted sweet Potatoes

To roast your sweet potatoes you have to cut them up into large chunks after washing them. Leave the skins on because that where a lot of the nutrients comes from. Make a dressing or marinade. For example, add honey, mustard and olive oil and mix them together until they bind. Then make sure all the protatoes are covered before putting them in the oven at 180c for 35 -40 minutes.

Mashed

When I used to work in a restaurant in my youth. I picked up so many tips for cooking and baking. One of them was to bake your potatoes and then take the contents out and they will be easily mash-able. Instead of boiling them. If you bake your potatoes in the oven for 40-50 minutes at 180c. However, make sure you test them to see if they are done at 40 minutes. You don’t want to over cook them. Then mash them up into a puree, you can season them with what you prefer. I like to add a pinch of salt, pepper, a dash of milk, butter, and sometimes some cut up spring onion.

Baked Sweet potatoes

This is a really easy one to make all you do is clean the sweet potatoes and pierce them before place them in the over for 40 minutes. Therefore, it’s just the beginning of making mashed potatoes. However, you can jazz them up a bit by cutting them in half and adding a filling like tuna for lunch or adding some cheese.

Fries

I feel like these are the hardest to make when at home and you want to make them from scratch. Obviously, you need to cut them into fry shapes. Add some oil and seasoning to them and place in the oven for 20 -25 minutes. they will cook quicker than a baked potato. However, you want to keep them from getting to moist. If you cook them for to long they won’t be like fries. I try and add minimal oil to them so there less moisture.

Ascot Mobile Personal trainers final note:

I have lots of sweet potatoes during the week. In fact Sarah-Lynn always asks me why there are so many in the cupboard. I find that it.s great in a salad or on the side of your lunch. As a mobile personal trainer it can be a tough when you don’t have a lot of time, especially traveling around Ascot or Windsor. Any of these sweet potatoes can be cooked the night before and eaten at lunch time. Making sure I/you can have enough energy for the next session/meeting.