The Best Way to Boil Sweet Potatoes (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to boil a sweet potato? ›

Add enough water to just cover the potatoes, and a pinch of salt. Boil sweet potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with a fork. It will take less time if you cut the sweet potatoes into smaller pieces. Drain and return to the pot.

Baking can also cause an 80% drop in vitamin A levels, twice as much as boiling. Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato.

Some recipes for homemade sweet potato fries ask you to soak the fries before cooking. The theory is that soaking draws out starch from inside the potatoes, helping them crisp up.

Combine russet potatoes and sweet potatoes in a large pot. Pour enough water over potatoes to cover; add chicken bouillon. Bring water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until tender, 15 to 20 minutes; drain.

And, if you're worried about nutrients. Don't. All foods lose some of their nutritional value once they've been cooked. But, microwaved sweet potatoes actually retain more of their nutrients as opposed to boiled sweet potatoes.

Wash sweet potatoes and boil or steam until partially soft (15 to 20 minutes). Cool only enough to handle and remove skins. Cut medium potatoes if needed so that pieces are uniform in size, no larger than 2¼ inches (6 cm) in diameter. Fill sweet potatoes into hot jars, leaving a space of 1 inch (2.5 cm) below the rim.

How does cooking affect the nutritional value of sweet potato? Cooking sweet potato does reduce its beta-carotene levels, although boiling appears to have a higher retention compared to baking. The good news, however, is that cooking sweet potato appears to increase its vitamin C content.

Unfortunately, yes! If your sweet potatoes cook too long in the oven they can overbake and become dry. The insides will become mushy. Moving your sweet potato cubes around and checking them periodically can help avoid overcooking.

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.

Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes. Cold water is used because hot water would react with the starch activating it, making it harder to separate from the potatoes.

How long can you leave sweet potatoes soaking in water? ›

Types of Potatoes to Soak

"Sweet potatoes can also be peeled and stored in water for up to 24 hours."

Leave the sweet potato whole or trim the root ends. Place the potatoes in a large pot of water. Add salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue cooking the sweet potatoes until fork tender.

Yams and sweet potatoes are different vegetables from different plants. It's not necessarily wrong to refer to sweet potatoes as yams (because the name has become normalized through the rough history of use), but it is important to understand that the two tubers diverge in look and taste.

Baking Soda – boiling the potatoes in baking soda draws out the starch and allows the outside to get brown and crispy. Sweet Potatoes – yams work fine too. Extra Virgin Olive Oil – gets infused with rosemary and garlic and is the key to getting that crispy exterior.

Density. So the basic answer is that sweet potatoes are less dense than regular potatoes, (and water) causing them to float rather than sink.

(Another hot tip if you're boiling your sweet potatoes: Don't overcook them! They tend to absorb water, which could make the filling watery.) So, say you do have some undercooked bits of sweet potato. You have two choices: Pick them out or bake your sweet potato casserole long enough to soften the underdone pieces.