EASY Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes - I Heart Naptime (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to bake a sweet potato in the oven or microwave? ›

Can You Cook Sweet Potatoes in the Microwave? Yes, you can! In fact, the shorter cook time will help the sweet potatoes retain more nutrients that are often lost in the long oven-baking process. It's not all that different than baking a sweet potato in the oven, except it's a whole lot faster.

Vitamins and Minerals

Just one sweet potato gives you 102% of the vitamin A you need each day. This helps keep your eyes healthy as well as your immune system, your body's defense against germs. It's also good for your reproductive system and organs like your heart and kidneys.

Sweet potatoes are incredibly rich in beta carotene, the antioxidant responsible for the vegetable's bright orange color. In fact, one cup (200 g) of baked orange sweet potato with skin provides more than double the amount of beta carotene that the average adult needs per day ( 2 ).

To make oven baked sweet potatoes, you will need the following ingredients: Sweet potatoes: Scrubbed and rinsed, to remove any dirt. If you are baking multiple sweet potatoes at the same time, it's also helpful to choose a batch of sweet potatoes that are similarly-sized so that they will bake evenly.

Microwaves zap the food haphazardly, so that one part can get instantly very hot and a spot a millimeter away doesn't get hot at all. The rapid heating can cause the granules to burst, and release sticky, gelatinized starch.

Wrapping sweet potatoes in foil helps in a few ways. It prevents the exterior of the tuber from drying out and overheating too quickly, which would minimize enzymatic activity; it also results in a more evenly cooked texture.

How to tell if sweet potatoes have gone bad. If your sweet potato is soft in spots, smells rotten, or oozes a mysterious liquid, that potato should be discarded. Another sign that sweet potatoes have taken a turn for the worse is if they start growing stalky purplish sprouts.

Eating potassium-rich sweet potatoes helps promote a healthy heart. Higher potassium intake allows you to excrete more sodium lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk for heart disease according to the American Heart Association.

The natural pigments that cause these colors may have special anticancer effects. What is the best way to cook sweet potatoes? Boiling may actually retain most of the antioxidant power of sweet potatoes, compared to roasting and steaming.

You can eat sweet potato skin. It's a good source of fiber, a nutrient that may help lower the risk of heart disease and keep you feeling full for longer periods of time. The next time you make a sweet potato dish, whether it's a roasted side dish or a hearty, cozy casserole, leave the peel on.

Can you overcook sweet potatoes? ›

If you're boiling, make sure to cut your sweet potatoes into equally sized pieces so they cook at the same rate. (Another hot tip if you're boiling your sweet potatoes: Don't overcook them! They tend to absorb water, which could make the filling watery.)

The beta-carotene in sweet potatoes has been shown to fight inflammation, and eating them regularly can help ease joint pain and other symptoms of inflammatory conditions like arthritis. If you're looking for a delicious way to reduce inflammation, add some sweet potatoes to a salad or bake alongside protein!

Before baking, use a fork to prick each sweet potato several times. You don't need to jab the fork in deep. We're creating steam vents. Otherwise the pressure in the sweet potato could build up so high in the oven that it explodes—an unlikely possibility but one best avoided!

The theory is that soaking draws out starch from inside the potatoes, helping them crisp up. I've tested soaking sweet potato fries many times, and I've found that it doesn't make them much crispier, if at all.

If the potato is still firm when squeezed, that means it needs to cook more. Baked sweet potatoes can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat for 2 minutes in the microwave, at 400°F in the air fryer for 5 minutes, or at 400°F in the oven for 10 minutes.

Because a microwave steams the inside of the potato rather than baking it from the outside, the resulting potato has a fluffier inner texture. The only downside of microwaving potatoes is that the skin gets soggy and doesn't have the crispy texture that you get from the oven.

If you don't cook it long enough, it may still be hard in the middle when you cut into it. After cooking, make sure a fork can go into the center of the potato without much resistance. If it still seems hard, continue to cook it in 30-second increments, checking for doneness.

Don't overcrowd the baking sheet!

This is an important one! If the baking sheet it too crowded, the sweet potatoes will not crisp.

However, in terms of the actual costs, it may depend on your local electricity rates. But generally, if we're considering energy efficiency and speed, a microwave is likely to be less expensive to operate.