John Myers
Sweet potatoes have become a trendy vegetable in recent years. The increased regional cultivation has also made you a fan. Then you can find out here why the voluminous orange tuber is so healthy and whether you eat it better with or without the skin.
Delicious and healthy
Sweet potatoes are very healthy as they contain numerous vitamins and minerals. Its taste is reminiscent of a mixture of sweet carrots, pumpkin, and potatoes. They belong to the morning glory family and you can even eat sweet potatoes raw. As a raw vegetable salad or as raw vegetable sticks with a dip, this is a delicious and extremely healthy option. Cooking, on the other hand, loses some good nutrients.
Eat sweet potatoes with their skins on
As with many types of fruit and vegetables, there are many good ingredients in or directly below the skin of sweet potatoes. So if you want to prepare your sweet potatoes warm, at least save yourself the tedious peeling and leave the skin on. In terms of nutrient density, the sweet potato clearly beats a normal potato. This is all in the orange tuber:
- Fiber
- Vitamins like A, C, B6, or E
- Minerals and trace elements such as potassium, sodium, magnesium
- Secondary plant substances
Interesting: It is above all the secondary plant substances that give the tuber from South America its reddish-orange, sometimes violet color. These plant compounds are also highly effective antioxidants.
Benefits of Unpeeled Sweet Potatoes
Regardless of the variety, there are many good reasons to eat sweet potatoes in their skins:
- The peel contains a particularly large number of healthy nutrients
- When cooking, the shell protects the vital substances inside
- The shell forms a delicious crust when baking or frying
- You save time and avoid waste
- Removing the shell with a peeler is not without risk due to the usually very uneven surface
Tip: If your recipe calls for peeled sweet potatoes, you can also remove them after cooking to preserve the nutrients. The cooking water and the pureed peel can also be processed into a sweet potato soup or vegetable broth.
If you leave the bowl on…
Keep the following points in mind if you want to eat your sweet potatoes in their skins:
- Clean them thoroughly under running water with a vegetable brush
- Cut off damaged areas or small shoots
- Remove the sharp ends, which tend to taste bitter
Tip: It is best to buy regional organic quality so that you do not have to worry about any pesticide residues on the healthy root vegetables.
Sweet potatoes vs. potato
Despite the similar name, sweet potatoes are botanically only very distantly related to conventional potatoes, which belong to the nightshade family. In contrast to the yellow-orange tubers, normal potatoes can produce toxic solanine if exposed to too much light. You can recognize this by the green spots. It is, therefore, better to always peel the local potatoes or only eat very fresh potatoes with their skins on.
