Similar in color to carrots when raw, the sweet potato or sweet potato tastes like pumpkin or turnip when fried. The unusual tubers of this plant can grow up to 30 cm in length, and the sweet potato can be used both for food and as a forage crop.
Sweet potatoes are grown in many countries of the world, but China can be called the leader in the production of sweet potatoes. In Russia, although there is a successful experience of obtaining good harvests, this culture has not yet become popular. And completely in vain, because sweet tubers can be used to create a wide variety of dishes. Sweet potatoes can even be eaten raw or boiled, fried, baked. Pieces of tubers are often added to cereals.
In addition to tubers, sweet potato stalk and leaves are also used in cooking. They are soaked and boiled to remove the bitter taste, and the resulting product is used for salads. Also, flour, sugar, starch, molasses, and alcohol are made from sweet potatoes. Vegetable shoots are laid for compost or for livestock feed.
Sweet potato seeds are also used as a coffee surrogate.
How are sweet potatoes good for you?
Sweet potato is similar to its “brother”, ordinary potato, only with tubers. And its ground part is a liana with many lashes. One bush can reach a height of 18 cm, but the tubers weigh up to 3 kg!
The flesh of an unusual vegetable can vary in color, there are many shades of tubers - from bright orange to purple. The taste of different varieties of sweet potatoes also differs - you can find both a very sweet product and almost bland.
The composition of sweet potatoes depends on the variety, but in any case, sweet potatoes have a calorie content of 1.5 times higher than the usual potatoes. Also, this plant is rich in calcium, iron and carbohydrates. Yellow tubers contain beta-carotene, lilac tubers contain anthocyanins.
Sweet potato dishes
It is curious that sweet potato is practically a dietary product due to its delicate fiber content. Therefore, the vegetable is recommended for people with indigestion. Due to the sweetish taste, tubers are best combined with seasonings - curry, any kind of pepper. You can make a soufflé, casserole or cookies from sweet potatoes by adding lemon, orange zest to the mass.
Sweet potatoes cook faster than regular white potatoes. The boiled vegetable is usually eaten without added salt. Raw tubers are used for vegetable salads, finely chopping or grating. Enriching your diet with sweet potatoes is easy by adding recipes for stuffed sweet potatoes, sweet potato chips, and more to your cookbook.
Sweet potatoes contain a natural female hormone, so eating the tubers can help increase libido.
Sweet potato contains a lot of vitamin C, so the product protects the body from cancer, thanks to vitamin B6, the vegetable helps to strengthen the walls of blood vessels. The potassium content makes sweet potatoes essential for strengthening the nervous system. You need to eat a vegetable if you suffer from headaches, insomnia.
