- Different cooking methods, like roasting or steaming, enhance flavor and lock in nutrients.
- Cooking them with healthy fats enhances the absorption of certain vitamins.
- Proper selection and storage help preserve the potatoes’ freshness and nutritional value.
If you’re a fan of sweet potatoes, you’re certainly not alone. Demand for the root vegetable has remained high over the past decade, thanks in part to its promotion to “superfood” status and to the increasingly popular sweet potato fries.
Getting the most out of your sweet potatoes has everything to do with how you prepare them. There are a variety of ways to cook this beloved veggie, and each of them has unique benefits for enhancing the taste and nutrient density. From roasting to steaming, dietitians dish on how you can maximize both the flavor and nutrition for your next spud-focused dinner.
Sweet Potato Nutrition Profile
The U.S. grows a variety of sweet potato types, each with its own unique color, taste and texture. Among the most popular is the orange-fleshed variety, commonly seen stacked high in the produce section of your local market. They are packed with nutrients that contribute to a healthy diet, including potassium, which is important for heart health, and plenty of fiber to support digestion. One small sweet potato provides:
- Calories: 112
- Carbohydrates: 26g
- Dietary Fiber: 4g
- Total Sugar: 5.5g
- Added Sugar: 0g
- Protein: 2g
- Total Fat: 0g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
- Sodium: 70mg
How to Cook Sweet Potatoes, According To Dietitians
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
One of the best ways to cook sweet potatoes to maximize both flavor and nutrition is roasting. “Roasting sweet potatoes with a small amount of oil allows the natural sugars to caramelize, creating a sweeter, more complex and slightly nutty flavor,” explains Marra Burroughs, D.C.N., RD, “Dry-heat methods like roasting also help preserve beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant and precursor to vitamin A. Beta-carotene is fat-soluble, so pairing sweet potatoes with a bit of healthy fat, such as olive oil, can also further enhance its absorption by the body,” Burroughs adds.
Burroughs says she leaves the skins on for added fiber and cuts the sweet potatoes into even-size pieces to help them cook more uniformly. Then, she tosses them in olive oil, and roasts them on a baking sheet at 450°F until they’re soft on the inside but crispy on the outside (about 15 to 20 minutes per side).
Steamed Sweet Potatoes
Avery Zenker, M.A.N., RD, says she enjoys the caramelized flavor that roasting gives sweet potatoes, but recommends steaming them first to preserve even more nutrients. “The combination of steaming first to soften the potatoes, then roasting in the oven to develop flavor, helps reduce the amount of time sweet potatoes are exposed to the high and dry heat in the oven, and helps retain the nutrients. This allows the sweet potatoes to caramelize, but not become too brown, to balance maximum flavor with high nutrient content.”
You can try this at home by steaming halved sweet potatoes for about 15 to 20 minutes, then carefully coating them in olive oil and placing them cut-side down on a baking sheet before roasting them for another 10 to 15 minutes. Serve them with your favorite toppings, like a dollop of tangy Greek-style yogurt and fresh chives.
Air-Fried Sweet Potatoes
Because air fryers typically require less cooking time, cardiology dietitian Michelle Routhenstein recommends this method for preserving more cardioprotective nutrients like beta-carotene, vitamin C and potassium. Routhenstein notes that “adding a little healthy fat, such as avocado oil, helps your body absorb the fat-soluble [nutrient] beta-carotene, the antioxidant that gives sweet potatoes their orange color. Beta-carotene also helps reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, both of which are linked to heart disease.”
In addition to coating them in a healthy fat, Routhenstein enjoys sprinkling them with ground cinnamon to enhance their natural sweetness. When cut into wedges and air-fried at 400°F, they should take only 15 to 20 minutes to become crisp and delicious.
Boiled Sweet Potatoes
While boiling vegetables does cause some nutrients to leach into the water, Jordan Langhough, RD, says that moist cooking methods create less oxidation, which, in turn, preserves more antioxidants. Langhough shares that boiling sweet potatoes can result in a lower glycemic impact compared to baking: “The moisture from boiling [makes] the starches slower to digest, which means a more steady release of energy, which will [cause] blood sugar [to rise] more slowly.”
Place whole sweet potatoes in a pot of water and cook them for about 20 to 40 minutes, depending on size, or roughly 10 to 20 minutes when cubed or when added to soups.
Tips for Selecting and Storing Sweet Potatoes
To get the most nutrients out of sweet potatoes, it’s important to know how to select them as well as how to store them. Here are some tips that can help you do just that.
- Look for smooth, slightly shiny skin, and avoid those with blemishes and wrinkles.
- Feel for a dense, firm sweet potato with no soft spots. Fresh sweet potatoes are heavy due to their high water and nutritional content, becoming lighter and softer as they begin to decay.
- Uncooked sweet potatoes should be stored in a cool, dark place with good air circulation. A paper bag inside a kitchen drawer is ideal. Avoid washing them before use, and do not place them in the refrigerator or next to other fruits and vegetables, as they emit gases that can cause premature decay.
- Cooked sweet potatoes should be cooled completely before storing. Place them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days or in the freezer for up to a year. Leftover sweet potatoes that are chilled or reheated can actually contain more resistant starch, which is digested more slowly than ordinary starch. Its slowed digestion leads to potential health benefits like improved insulin sensitivity and enhanced gut health.
Our Expert Take
Sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C and potassium, which are essential nutrients for a healthy diet. To preserve these valuable nutrients and maximize the flavor, dietitians recommend cooking methods such as roasting, steaming, air-frying and boiling. They also recommend incorporating oils to help the body absorb the fat-soluble nutrients like beta-carotene. Choosing fresh sweet potatoes at the supermarket and storing leftovers properly is key to enjoying the best nutritional content.
