Orange Cardamom Roasted Sweet Potatoes Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between sweet potatoes and orange sweet potatoes? ›

White sweet potatoes are related to the orange sweet potato, but with some noticeable differences — mostly in texture and taste. Orange sweet potatoes have more moisture, are orange-fleshed, and very sweet. White sweet potatoes are dryer, white-fleshed, mild in flavor, and slightly nutty.

Don't overcrowd the baking sheet!

This is an important one! If the baking sheet it too crowded, the sweet potatoes will not crisp. You should provide optimal space for air to flow through, and the sweet potatoes shouldn't be touching.

The cold water bath helps rinse the starch off the sweet potatoes so they're a bit more crispy. That said, if you do not have the time, you can still get crispy baked sweet potato fries by using high heat and a little drizzle of olive oil.

Sweet Potatoes and Health

Sweet potatoes with orange flesh are richest in beta-carotene. Sweet potatoes with purple flesh are richer in anthocyanins. Beta-carotene and anthocyanins are naturally occurring plant “phyto” chemicals that give vegetables their bright colors.

Although both veggies are very close in fiber, protein, vitamin C, and magnesium, sweet potatoes are the healthier option because they are lower in overall calories, lower in carbohydrates, and higher in beta carotene (vitamin A).

One of the phenols, called chlorogenic acid, is the culprit that makes sweet potatoes, and sometimes, regular potatoes darken when they're cooked. The chlorogenic acid combines with iron ions in the potato and oxygen absorbed from the atmosphere and cooking water, creating the dark pigment.

However, as a general guideline, sweet potatoes typically take about 45 minutes to 1 hour to bake at 400°F (200°C), whereas regular potatoes may take closer to 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes to bake at the same temperature.

The longer and slower you cook a sweet potato, the more maltose is formed and the sweeter it will taste. So if you want a much less sweet potato try steaming it, or cut it into small pieces and roast on a higher heat.

You can grill, smash, bake, mash and even air-fry them. Along with those cooking methods, one of the healthiest ways to cook sweet potatoes is to roast them. The best technique for roasting vegetables is to roast them at higher temperatures so that the natural sugars caramelize.

The reason they are hard in the middle is cook them longer or on a higher temperature. Soaking will not help soften your sweet potato unless you are putting the potato and water in a pot on the stove and cooking it. If your sweet potato is still hard it's not cooked enough.

Should you rinse sweet potatoes before cooking? ›

Skipping the Scrub-and-Wash Step

Sweet potatoes grow in the ground, and skipping the cleaning step means dirt or grit can end up in your sweet potato casserole. Before cooking or cutting sweet potatoes, wash the skins and give them a scrub with a clean vegetable brush.

Scrub and pat potatoes dry. Pierce potatoes all over with the tines of a fork and bake in oven, directly on rack, until soft and caramelizing, 1 1/2 hours. Slash the tops of potatoes open with the tip of a sharp knife and push ends of each potato toward each other to open.

Use a Large Baking Sheet: crowded pans = steaming vegetables = mushy soggy vegetables. Ensure the sweet potatoes have enough room and are not overlapping to encourage crispy caramelization.

Some say that purple sweet potatoes are slightly sweeter. Others claim that they're less sweet, but have a creamier texture. Other than their striking color, we think they are pretty much interchangeable with orange, white, red, or any other color sweet potato.

Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are one of the richest natural sources of beta carotene, a plant-based compound that is converted to vitamin A in your body ( 28 ). Vitamin A is critical to a healthy immune system, and low blood levels have been linked to reduced immunity ( 29 ).

Which sweet potato is the sweetest? Sweetest is subjective but relatively speaking, Garnets and Hannahs are mildly sweet. Purple and Jewels are moderately sweet and the Japanese variety tend to be the sweetest.

The white sweet potato tastes much like the orange sweet potato but has a milder flavor. It can go between sweet and savory quite smoothly, while its orange cousin is pretty much always very sweet. The orange sweet potato's sweet flavor is beloved in classic dishes like sweet potato pie.