Sweet Potatoes are root vegetables, starchy and sweet. We all have eaten it as children and many of us like them a lot.
Sweet potatoes contain high amounts of complex carbohydrates, dietary fibre, and also contain Vitamin A, B5, B6, and C, magnesium and potassium etc. It is ranked highest in nutritive value.
You can read more about them here:
I remember that in my child hood sweet potatoes made a very delicious snack. They are used for making many delicious dishes. I will post some at a time. Before using them, they should be thoroughly washed to remove the dirt (as they are dug out from the soil)and patted dry with a cloth.
1. Sweet Potato as Snack: Steamed/Boiled: After washing they are cut into pieces the size of the pieces depending upon the size of the tuber. Some are really big where as some are slender and long. Now they are boiled in water or steamed till they are done.
The skin is then removed and eaten as it is or with a bit of salt or other spices. This makes a great snack for children and elders too.
These boiled potatoes are used for many a dish as you will see in my posts.
2. Sweet Potato as Snack: Roasted: Clean and cut the tubers into long pieces. Smear oil all over and prick with fork a few times. Put them in hot coals and roast over them. when they are almost black on the outside they are done. Or check by piercing it with a knife or fork. They must be soft. Cool them, peel them and eat as it is or with a little bit of salt and pepper or spices of your choice sprinkled on them.
When the winter in India is at its peak, people sit around coal fires, roasting sweet potatoes, gossiping, chatting and enjoying. Entire family sits around the iron Chullahs (stoves), roasting sweet potatoes and soaking in the warmth of the coal fire. It is time for bonding. My grandmother used to roast a large number of these tubers and we all used to sit around and enjoy the snack, listening to our grand parents, uncles and aunts talking about various things.
So one chilly Sunday me my brother and my niece roasted some sweet potatoes over coal fires in a clay tray. Though she did not like the taste much, she liked the process of roasting. Here are the pictures.
I brushed oil on the pieces after cleaning them and pierced them with fork a few times.
Then roasted over red hot coals on sand in a clay tray.
Then we snacked on them. It is as simple as that. They taste very delicious when roasted on coals.
Note: One thing is sweet potatoes are hard to digest and should be avoided in late evenings as far as possible by the people who have poor digestive systems.
Watch out for more recipes of sweet Potatoes in my next posts....
