Cooking Uses: What Are Purple Sweet Potatoes Best For
Ingredients in life each have their own merits, and Purple sweet potatoes are no exception. They have many possibilities worthy of exploration in meal combinations.
What is Purple sweet potatoes best for?
Making desserts: Purple sweet potatoes are most suitable for making desserts. I often make mashed purple sweet potatoes. The texture is dense and delicate, and the taste is sweet. Eating it directly is good. Using it as filling and putting it into pastries is also fine. Adding it to dough and baking it into various pastries is also very good.
Making porridge: Making porridge is also quite good. Cut purple sweet potatoes into small pieces and cook them with rice and the like. The cooked porridge is nutritious and has the unique sweet taste of purple sweet potatoes. The taste is richer when drinking.
Making soup: Putting purple sweet potatoes when making soup is also very good. For example, stewing it with ribs. Purple sweet potatoes can absorb the umami of the soup and become soft and glutinous. This makes the soup more comprehensive in nutrition and tastes quite good when drinking.
Are Purple sweet potatoes best for making side dishes or main courses?
Personally, I recommend it as a side dish. Eating it with staple foods can make the whole meal more nutritious and have a more layered taste.
When purple sweet potato is used as a side dish, it can be steamed first and then cut into pieces or diced and stir-fried. It can also be cooked together with other vegetables. Its sweetness and texture are quite mild and will not steal the limelight from other ingredients.
Although purple sweet potato is quite nutritious, it has a relatively high carbohydrate content but insufficient protein content. If it is used as a main dish alone, it is easy to have an unbalanced nutrition. So it is a better choice to eat it with meat or soy products.
How are Purple sweet potatoes different from white potatoes?
In terms of appearance: Most of the skins of purple sweet potatoes are purple, and the flesh inside also presents purple or light purple, etc.; the skins of white sweet potatoes are generally yellowish-white or light red, and the flesh is basically white or light yellow.
In terms of taste: Purple sweet potatoes usually have a relatively dense texture, and some also have a certain stickiness. They taste faintly sweet. The taste of white sweet potatoes is relatively softer in some cases, and in some cases it is relatively powdery. There are also differences in sweetness, but overall, the sweetness is not as obvious as that of purple sweet potatoes.
In terms of nutritional components: Purple sweet potatoes contain relatively rich anthocyanins and have antioxidant and other effects. Although white sweet potatoes also contain a variety of nutrients, the content of anthocyanins is much less than that of purple sweet potatoes.
In terms of cooking uses: Purple sweet potatoes are more often used to make desserts, such as mashed purple sweet potatoes and purple sweet potato pastries. They are also suitable for eating directly after steaming. In addition to steaming, white sweet potatoes are more often used for making porridge and vermicelli. The application ranges are not the same.
Why is my Purple sweet potato bitter?
Reason one: The purple sweet potatoes have gone bad. If the storage environment is humid and sweltering and they are stored for a long time, purple sweet potatoes are easy to spoil. In this case, they will taste bitter when eaten.
Reason two: The growth of purple sweet potatoes is adversely affected. For example, if the soil environment during its growth is not good or fertilization is unreasonable, the quality of purple sweet potatoes themselves will have problems, and it is easy to feel a bitter taste when eating.
Reason three: Problems occur during the cooking process. It may be that they are improperly paired with certain ingredients, or inappropriate seasonings and spices are used, resulting in a bitter taste in purple sweet potatoes.
Are Purple sweet potatoes good for making potato chips?
Yes, but it is not the best choice. Because purple sweet potatoes have a high water content and high starch viscosity, the fried potato chips are not crispy enough and are easy to become soft or sticky.
Ordinary potatoes are more suitable for making potato chips because they have a moderate starch content and less moisture. The finished product is both crispy and not too dry. If you really want to try purple sweet potato chips, you can cut the purple sweet potatoes extremely thinly and first use kitchen paper to absorb the surface moisture.
During production, the oil temperature should be maintained at around 170 degrees Celsius. After putting it into the pot, stir quickly. Once the potato chips turn golden yellow, they should be immediately fished out, otherwise they are easy to burn. The freshly fried purple sweet potato chips should be cooled before being put into a box so that the crispy texture can be maintained.
Are Purple sweet potatoes high in starch?
The starch content of purple sweet potatoes is at a medium level. Per 100 grams of raw purple sweet potatoes contain about 25 to 30 grams of starch, slightly lower than that of ordinary potatoes and slightly higher than that of sweet potatoes.
From a nutritional perspective, purple sweet potatoes have a very high content of dietary fiber and anthocyanins, which makes them more nutritious than ordinary starchy foods. At the same time, the sugar content is moderate and the glycemic index is relatively low.
When cooking, purple sweet potatoes are easy to become soft and mushy. This is mainly because their fiber structure is relatively loose, not because of the high starch content. The steaming and boiling time should be moderate to avoid affecting the taste and nutrition.
