Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner: Sweet Potatoes

 Sweet Potatoes at the First Thanksgiving?

 Sweet potatoes are a Native American plant thus making it a true American food.  It was a main source of nutrition for the early homesteaders and for soldiers during the Revolutionary War.  I didn’t know all that!  I just thought they were super good and the reason I was pregnant so often.  Yes, sweet potatoes are fertility boosters!  (ok, that may not be scientific data!)   We eat sweet potatoes year around–I make up a huge batch; some to eat, some to bake with and some to freeze.  I make SP chocolate chip muffins at least once a month to be Blessed by Breakfast.

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I made these sweet potatoes by steaming them #3 below and I added a little unrefined coconut sugar to them.  No butter, no salt, not anything extra . . . I did add some lines with a fork to make it look a little fancy.  

How-to Prepare Sweet Potatoes

  1. Boil:  Peel, cut, boil until a fork can go through the potato.  Drain.  
  2. Baking:  simply put them on a sheet pan.  350-400 . . . start checking them a 30 minutes.  You can bake them with the skins on or peel them.  Sweet Potatoes are very forgiving!
  3. Steam:  I have a Cusinart 4 in 1 steamer (highly recommend getting one) and I used the steam setting for 20 minutes and they were perfect.  The potatoes in the picture above were used in this method.
  4. Mashed:  mash with a fork or potato masher–add Earth Balance (or butter for NonVegans) and brown sugar.
  5. Cubed:  I add chunks of sweet potatoes to soups, stews, veggie medley–it adds great taste, more nutrition and amazing color.
  6. Fries:  I peel, cut into fry sized strips, coat with a touch of oil and bake at 400 or 450 until they are the perfect amount of crunch.  I add salt but they are great with chili powder or chipolte seasoning.

Sweet Potato Toppings

  1. Marshmallows:  that is what my mom used to do.  mini marshmallows and she used canned yams–which are not sweet potatoes at all.  I dislike this dish very much–I’m not sure if I didn’t like the food or the fact that she burned the dish and it took forever to scrub.
  2. Nuts of any kind!  
  3. If you are serving chunks of potatoes than add cranberries, grapes, black beans, coconut –use your imagination.
  4. Brown Sugar–I use organic brown sugar–I think it taste better.

So will you give the sweet potato a try?  I know quite a few of my friends on Facebook made sweet potatoes their first choice for a Thanksgiving dinner side.  Thanks Jeff, Marleen, Jennifer, Dana, Gail, Vic, Dee, Christa, James, Brianna, Naomi, Sharon, Honey, and Emily gave an super easy, frugal stuffing recipe.  

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Please share your recipes in the comments below!  Knowing that it is a favorite of yours makes it more special than just googling a recipe!  Don’t be shy!

Extra Bits

Sweet Potatoes are high in Vitamin A, C, B6 and Pantothenic Acid (the protein that makes your hair look great) and they are almost a complete protein.  Go here for a complete Nutritional Breakdown.  SP have about 8% of the RDA in calcium–but the kids aren’t crazy about them–in a dish BUT they devour sweet potato muffins and  SP pancakes!  

Finally, I wrote this post about God in the Sweet Potatoes.  Yet another gardening mishap!  My garden grows like crazy . . . but not what I intend to plant.  A true organic garden.

Be Blessed in your kitchen!

More Sweet Potato Articles

Six Amazing Fact You Need To Know about Sweet Potatoes 

Entire Blog about Sweet Potatoes!!!  great recipes

 

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