Sweet potato fries anyone? Don't go out and order them just yet--they're not so healthy once a deep fryer gets a hold of them! My superfood this week is sweet potatoes, the lovely powerhouse food that so many of us love to eat fried, but never eat enough of at home...and why not??! We can easily grill, mash, bake, steam, and broil these babies to reap the health benefits without adding all the fat and calories so many restaurants do! (Keep reading...at the end of this post I will give you a recipe for a healthier version of sweet potato fries that will blow your mind!!)
Besides being one of the HEALTHIEST vegetables, sweet potatoes sometimes get a bad rep since they're carbohydrates...(and god forbid we eat those, right ladies??) What most people don't realize is that sweet potatoes are an excellent source of plant protein and VERY LOW in calories! About 1 large sweet potato has between 130-160 calories, a medium about 95 calories, and a small one has around 54 calories--THAT'S IT. Plus.....they are extremely low in sugar as compared to other starchy vegetables (which is one of the main reasons we try to avoid carbs: the hidden sugar), but there's nothing to hide with these guys! It's all good stuff! Sweet potatoes, especially the deeper-colored ones, are extremely rich in carotenes (precursor of vitamin A), an excellent source of vitamins C, B2, B6, E and biotin (B7), and have a high mix of antioxidants. In the minerals department, they provide good amounts of manganese, folate (folic acid), copper and iron. They also have pantothenic acid and are rich in dietary fiber!
Despite its name, the sweet potato really doesn't belong to the same family as the potato--not even close. Potatoes are tubers, sweet potatoes are roots! In some places, the darker colored sweet potatoes have been mistakenly called yams. (Yams are often whitish to purplish color, depending on the variety. They have a distinct earthy taste, hardy texture and are hardly sweet.)
When buying sweet potatoes, go for the darker variety if available. The darker it is the higher the carotene content. Choose sweet potatoes that are firm and not wrinkled. Keep sweet potatoes in an open, dark and well-ventilated place, verses wrapped up in plastic bags or in the refrigerator, and they will stay fresh for up to 10 days. You can prepare sweet potatoes the same way you would prepare any potato--in the oven, on the grill, or stovetop! The skin contains the most nutrition, so try not to peel off the skin and instead give it a good scrub with a vegetable brush to clean it up!
The significant amount of dietary fiber in sweet potatoes, especially when eaten with the skin, helps to promote a healthy digestive tract, relieving constipation and aids in preventing colon cancer. They also strengthen the body's immune system, develop resistance to infection, and help prevent heart attacks and strokes. All great news to anyone looking to get--and stay--healthy!
For pregnant women (or those trying to get pregnant), sweet potatoes are huge for fetal development: The high folate content is important and necessary for healthy fetal cell and tissue development.
To help prevent muscle cramps, sweet potatoes could be your cure: A deficiency in potassium can cause muscular cramps and greater susceptibility to injury. Make sweet potatoes a regular part of your diet if you exercise a lot, both for an energy boost and to prevent cramps and injuries.
By snacking on the potassium-packed sweet potato, it helps rebalance our stress levels and normalize our heartbeats, sending oxygen to the brain and regulating the body's water balance. (This little known fact can help a lot of us in our over-booked, over-worked stressful lives!)
The numbers for the nutritional sweet potato speak for themselves: almost twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, 42 percent of the recommendation for vitamin C, four times the RDA for beta carotene, and, when eaten with the skin, sweet potatoes have more fiber than oatmeal!! Now what you've all been waiting for........MY SECRET & INFAMOUS SWEET POTATO FRIES RECIPE!
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Take 2 large sweet potatoes and wash throughly (can add more or less potatoes depending on how many you want to make--recipe time doesn't change much). Cut potatoes into "fry-like" pieces on cutting board. Then toss in a bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Add 1 fresh chopped garlic clove to the bowl and mix well. Spray pan with baking spray. Layout fries on pan in a SINGLE LAYER and bake for about 12-18 minutes (adjust time according to the width of the fries: less time for "shoestring-cut fries," more time for thicker "steak-cut fries"). Flip fries halfway through baking (or after about 6-8 minutes).
**This is my hidden trick for making them "extra crispy": On the LAST MINUTE of baking, turn oven to "broil high" and broil for 1 minute--keep an eye on those fries as they brown up quickly!!
Remove from oven and let sit on pan for 1 minute before plating. Serve with a sweet dijon mustard sauce.* (*Sweet dijon mustard sauce: take 2 tbsp dijon mustard and mix in 1 tsp agave nectar or raw honey, set aside room temperature until ready to serve.) You can always eat the fries without any sauce as well. Sprinkle with fresh herbs for an extra kick...Violia!
Now that you know all my secrets to making the one thing I try and make for EVERY one of my dinner guests--go and cook them yourself! It will be a healthy addition to the dinner table that the whole family will love, not to mention it will impress ANYONE who loves a good sweet potato fry...(trust me, they'll never know its healthy!)
Sweet potato fries anyone? Don't go out and order them just yet--they're not so healthy once a deep fryer gets a hold of them! My superfood this week is sweet potatoes, the lovely powerhouse food that so many of us love to eat fried, but never eat enough of at home...and why not??! We can easily grill, mash, bake, steam, and broil these babies to reap the health benefits without adding all the fat and calories so many restaurants do! (Keep reading...at the end of this post I will give you a recipe for a healthier version of sweet potato fries that will blow your mind!!)
Besides being one of the HEALTHIEST vegetables, sweet potatoes sometimes get a bad rep since they're carbohydrates...(and god forbid we eat those, right ladies??) What most people don't realize is that sweet potatoes are an excellent source of plant protein and VERY LOW in calories! About 1 large sweet potato has between 130-160 calories, a medium about 95 calories, and a small one has around 54 calories--THAT'S IT. Plus.....they are extremely low in sugar as compared to other starchy vegetables (which is one of the main reasons we try to avoid carbs: the hidden sugar), but there's nothing to hide with these guys! It's all good stuff! Sweet potatoes, especially the deeper-colored ones, are extremely rich in carotenes (precursor of vitamin A), an excellent source of vitamins C, B2, B6, E and biotin (B7), and have a high mix of antioxidants. In the minerals department, they provide good amounts of manganese, folate (folic acid), copper and iron. They also have pantothenic acid and are rich in dietary fiber!
Despite its name, the sweet potato really doesn't belong to the same family as the potato--not even close. Potatoes are tubers, sweet potatoes are roots! In some places, the darker colored sweet potatoes have been mistakenly called yams. (Yams are often whitish to purplish color, depending on the variety. They have a distinct earthy taste, hardy texture and are hardly sweet.)
When buying sweet potatoes, go for the darker variety if available. The darker it is the higher the carotene content. Choose sweet potatoes that are firm and not wrinkled. Keep sweet potatoes in an open, dark and well-ventilated place, verses wrapped up in plastic bags or in the refrigerator, and they will stay fresh for up to 10 days. You can prepare sweet potatoes the same way you would prepare any potato--in the oven, on the grill, or stovetop! The skin contains the most nutrition, so try not to peel off the skin and instead give it a good scrub with a vegetable brush to clean it up!
The significant amount of dietary fiber in sweet potatoes, especially when eaten with the skin, helps to promote a healthy digestive tract, relieving constipation and aids in preventing colon cancer. They also strengthen the body's immune system, develop resistance to infection, and help prevent heart attacks and strokes. All great news to anyone looking to get--and stay--healthy!
For pregnant women (or those trying to get pregnant), sweet potatoes are huge for fetal development: The high folate content is important and necessary for healthy fetal cell and tissue development.
To help prevent muscle cramps, sweet potatoes could be your cure: A deficiency in potassium can cause muscular cramps and greater susceptibility to injury. Make sweet potatoes a regular part of your diet if you exercise a lot, both for an energy boost and to prevent cramps and injuries.
By snacking on the potassium-packed sweet potato, it helps rebalance our stress levels and normalize our heartbeats, sending oxygen to the brain and regulating the body's water balance. (This little known fact can help a lot of us in our over-booked, over-worked stressful lives!)
The numbers for the nutritional sweet potato speak for themselves: almost twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, 42 percent of the recommendation for vitamin C, four times the RDA for beta carotene, and, when eaten with the skin, sweet potatoes have more fiber than oatmeal!! Now what you've all been waiting for........MY SECRET & INFAMOUS SWEET POTATO FRIES RECIPE!
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Take 2 large sweet potatoes and wash throughly (can add more or less potatoes depending on how many you want to make--recipe time doesn't change much). Cut potatoes into "fry-like" pieces on cutting board. Then toss in a bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Add 1 fresh chopped garlic clove to the bowl and mix well. Spray pan with baking spray. Layout fries on pan in a SINGLE LAYER and bake for about 12-18 minutes (adjust time according to the width of the fries: less time for "shoestring-cut fries," more time for thicker "steak-cut fries"). Flip fries halfway through baking (or after about 6-8 minutes).
**This is my hidden trick for making them "extra crispy": On the LAST MINUTE of baking, turn oven to "broil high" and broil for 1 minute--keep an eye on those fries as they brown up quickly!!
Remove from oven and let sit on pan for 1 minute before plating. Serve with a sweet dijon mustard sauce.* (*Sweet dijon mustard sauce: take 2 tbsp dijon mustard and mix in 1 tsp agave nectar or raw honey, set aside room temperature until ready to serve.) You can always eat the fries without any sauce as well. Sprinkle with fresh herbs for an extra kick...Violia!
Now that you know all my secrets to making the one thing I try and make for EVERY one of my dinner guests--go and cook them yourself! It will be a healthy addition to the dinner table that the whole family will love, not to mention it will impress ANYONE who loves a good sweet potato fry...(trust me, they'll never know its healthy!)
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