Sweet potatoes rule!! (Potatoes)

Member Name: charlie1979

Product:	Potatoes
Date:	25/11/08 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really healthy, quick to cook

Disadvantages: None really

SWEET POTATOES
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In my latest effort to eat more healthily and shed a few pounds I decided to try and reduce my carb intake at dinner time and these wierd little spuds were recommended to me!

**What are they?**

Sweet potatoes are generally grown in America and South America is where they are native. You may have heard the food item 'yam' used in America, well this is 'them'!

They have a brown somewhat scruffy looking exterior and tend to be longer and thinner than your usual spud. The flesh of the sweet potatoe is actually orange and I had a bit of a shock when I cut open my first!

The skin seems more 'rubbery' than the normal potatoe and I do find them slightly harder to peel because of this.

**Why the spud swap?!**

Sweet potatoes have a range of health benefits including counting towards your five a day. They are packed full of vitamins including vitamins A and C. They also have loads of minerals in them such as potassium and magnesium.

These potatoes are a complex carbohydrate so they release energy slowly. They are also a great source of fibre.

Being virtually fat free they are a great addition to any meal and help to fill you up.

**Nutritional value per 100g**

Caloreis 93
Carbohydrate 21.3g (5.7g of which sugars)
Fat 0.3g (0.1g of which saturates)
Fibre 2.4g
Sodium trace
Vitamin A 857ug (107% RDA)
Vitamin C 23mg (39% RDA)

**How to cook**

You can do everything with the sweet potatoe that you would do with a reguar potatoe:

- Oven bake 60-75 minutes
- Oven roast 45-50 minutes
- Microwave 5 minutes
- Hob 15 minutes.

My fabourite has to be the mashed potatoe. Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks then boil for approximately fifteen minutes. Mash with a potatoe masher then add ingredients to taste. I like mine simle and just add a sprinkle of ground ginger.

**Taste**

Although these are a potatoe the taste really is lovely and you can eat them on their own without having to add loads of seasoning as you would to a regular potatoe.

The taste is quite sweet (surprise surprise!) and may not be to everyones taste but I love them! I am really fussy with my food so surprised myself that I actually quite liked these!

It's quite a mild taste and not too overpowereing which is good as you need a balance of flavours with a meal. The potatoe tends to be more of a bulking addition to a meal and you don't want it stealing all the limelight from the main ingredients!

**Summary**

I can honestly say that I am a sweet potatoe convert! Not only are they really good for you they also cook much quicker. I can have a jacket potatoe ready in the microwave quicker than I can prepare the topping!

I recently purchased two 1kg bags of these for £2 in Tescos so they are good value considering all the health benefits from them.

Go on..........give this little sweetie a try!

Summary: A healthy addition to any meal