Nutritious, delicious sweet potatoes: 8 ways to get more in your diet

Not only are they rich in beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant linked to lowered risks of certain cancers and heart disease, sweet potatoes are also extremely tasty. Here's a guide to this super-food and eight ways to get more sweet potatoes in your diet.

Did you know the beta-carotene – the pigment that makes carrots orange – is what gives many varieties of sweet potatoes their particular orangish colour? It's also part of the reason they're so healthy for you.

Packed into 125 ml (1/2 cup) of sweet potatoes you'll find:

• Only 170 calories
• Almost half of the daily requirement for vitamin C
• More than five times the daily requirement for vitamin A
• More than 10 per cent of the daily requirement for fibre

Tasty and good for you...there are so many reasons to love sweet potatoes!

It's easy to find sweet potatoes in the fresh-produce section of your local grocery store, but you'll still want to watch for a few things.

Season
Although sweet potatoes are available all year round, they're most abundant and at their best from early autumn through the winter months.

Varieties
Surprisingly, sweet potatoes can be white, purple or orange/red/gold. The white-skinned sweet potatoes have white flesh, and the purple sweet potato has a creamy-white flesh.

What to look for
Choose firm sweet potatoes with smooth, dry skin and no cracks or blemishes. Remember to check the tips of the potatoes, which is where decay usually begins.

Storing
It's easy to store sweet potatoes, as you'd expect. Simply keep them in a cool (preferably around 12°C/54°F) dark place for up to a month.

• At normal room temperature, sweet potatoes will last up to a week.
• Don't put raw sweet potatoes in the refrigerator; they tend to harden and develop an off taste.
• You can freeze cooked sweet potatoes for longer storage.

Preparation
Prepping sweet potatoes for use is very much as you'd do it for regular potatoes.

• Scrub unpeeled potatoes well before baking.
• Potatoes to be cut up for cooking can be peeled with a swivel-blade peeler.
• Alternatively, peel whole potatoes after cooking.

Basic cooking
Again, the way to cook is similar to regular spuds. 

• To bake whole sweet potatoes, preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F).
• Next, pierce each potato in several places with a fork or knife tip.
• Then, arrange potatoes in a foil-lined baking pan.
• Finally, bake until very tender, about one hour.

If you've never tried sweet potatoes before then you're in a for a pleasant surprise! Here are eight delicious ways to enjoy this colourful, tasty tuber.

1. Baked sweet potatoes, served split and mashed with butter as a side dish, are exquisite! Their sweet flavour doesn't need salt to enhance it – which is healthier for you.
2. Their sweetness can be enhanced by baking sweet potatoes with pear, apple or orange juice. It adds a tangy, aromatic flavour to the potato itself, which usually doesn't require any butter because it's just that creamy.
3. For a different taste, season sweet potatoes with lime juice and cilantro, or mash with roasted garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Mash boiled sweet potatoes to use as a side dish. Like with baked potatoes, few condiments are required (if any).
5. Mash sweet potatoes with maple syrup and serve as a pudding for dessert. Did you ever imagine you would serve them for dessert?
6. Make a salad with chunks of cooked sweet potato. Dress with lime juice, olive oil, curry powder and salt and sprinkle with finely chopped spring onions.
7. Mash cooked sweet potatoes with grated Parmesan cheese. Use in place of half the cheese in your favourite lasagna recipe.
8. Make sweet potato chips by thinly slicing sweet potatoes and drizzling them with olive oil. Bake in a 200°C (400°F) oven until tender and crisp.

Although sweet potatoes are called yams in some countries, the two vegetables are unrelated. Yams grow on vines while sweet potatoes (which are tubers) grow underground.

The health benefits of sweet potatoes are way too important to be ignored – plus, they taste great! The next time you're wondering what's for dinner, why not give one of these recipe ideas a try.

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