The Sweet Potato Recipes To Make This Thanksgiving (2024)

FAQs

How many pounds of sweet potatoes per person for Thanksgiving? ›

For Thanksgiving, I would use slightly less than one pound of sweet potatoes per person. As a side dish to a meal, I would plan on one pound per person.

While both yams and sweet potatoes are root vegetables, the taste of each is entirely unique. The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes tend to be much sweeter and creamier in texture compared to yams which have a white flesh that's starchier and more similar to a white potato.

All-purpose flour will help thicken the sauce and give some structure. Maple syrup balances the sweetness and adds flavor. All granulated sugar can be too sweet.

The cold water bath helps rinse the starch off the sweet potatoes so they're a bit more crispy.

TIPS & TRICKS to Make this Recipe: The main secrets to achieving that incredible crispy texture, is to soak the cut sweet potatoes in cold water for at least 30 minutes. This helps remove the starch from the sweet potatoes so they´re not limp & soggy.

“A general guideline to estimating how many sweet potatoes you need when hosting friends or family for a meal is one medium sweet potato per person,” Burgess says, as if she's done this many times before.

Use 1 medium sweet potato per person.

Potatoes: Peel or pare and chop up to a day in advance. Store in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator. Sweet potatoes: Peel and chop 3 to 4 days in advance. Store in a sealed bag or container with an airtight lid in the refrigerator.

While both yams and sweet potatoes are root vegetables, the taste of each is entirely unique. The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes tend to be much sweeter and creamier in texture compared to yams which have a white flesh that's starchier and more similar to a white potato.

Their tender leaves are a good cooked vegetable, too. Sweet potatoes cook more quickly than yams, are moister, and they taste distinctly sweet.

Why yams are mistaken for sweet potatoes? ›

In America, where there were no yams, they were replaced with the New World sweet potatoes (Ipomea batatas), which were paler in color and drier in texture than today's popular varieties. Slaves took to calling them by the West African word nyami, which was Anglicized to "yam."

The egg is the all-important binder in a sweet potato casserole: it enriches and stiffens the mixture without making it heavy. Make sure to cool the mash slightly before adding the egg so it doesn't scramble, and to stir well so there are no streaks of cooked egg white in the finished dish.

Baking can also cause an 80% drop in vitamin A levels, twice as much as boiling. Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato.

The reason they are hard in the middle is cook them longer or on a higher temperature. Soaking will not help soften your sweet potato unless you are putting the potato and water in a pot on the stove and cooking it. If your sweet potato is still hard it's not cooked enough.

Sweet potatoes are planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. Sweet potatoes are great sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, beta carotene, fiber and potassium. Sweet potatoes can be white, yellow, red, purple or orange. The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are sweeter than the other varieties.

Despite their sweet taste, these potatoes have an intermediate glycemic index (GI) level, meaning they are digested and absorbed fairly slowly, leading to a more gradual increase in blood sugar levels. But, a lot of these benefits, including nutrients and taste, can be lost by boiling sweet potatoes.