Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking Sweet Potatoes
NEWS
By BUFFY NAILLON
Incorrect Storage
Refrigerating your sweet potatoes can significantly impact their structure and taste as the frigid cold inside the fridge can alter them on a cellular level.
Instead, store them in a cool, dark place, like a pantry at 50 F to 60 F, to maintain their original taste and texture for a month or two until you’re ready to enjoy them.
Buying Spoilt Potatoes
To avoid consuming bad sweet potatoes, rely on visual and tactile cues such as wrinkled and mushy texture, mold, dark spots, and sprouting eyes.
Additionally, trust your sense of smell, as a foul odor indicates the sweet potato’s deterioration, allowing you to detect spoilage before visual or tactile signs become apparent.
Boiling Sweet Potatoes
For improved flavor in recipes like sweet potato pie, opt for roasting or baking your potatoes over boiling to help activate the enzyme amylase.
This will help enhance sweetness without extra sugar; however, if you’re looking for a sweet and savory balance, boiling sweet potatoes can slow down sugar release.
Baking Them Incorrectly
Baking sweet potatoes at 375°F typically takes from 30 minutes to just over an hour, depending on size. To check doneness, use the fork or knife test.
If it easily slides in and the interior feels mushy, the sweet potato is ready. However, you should avoid piercing holes before baking the potatoes as it can impact their sweetness.
Limiting Their Usage
Sweet potatoes not only enhance sweet dishes but also add a delightful flavor to savory recipes such as chili, mashed potatoes, Asian soups, and potato bars.