These Sweet Potato Recipes Are Making Us So Excited for Fall (2024)

FAQs

Is sweet potato a fall food? ›

Sweet Potatoes. Fall is the perfect time to change up your potato game and swap your usual white potatoes for sweet potatoes.

Pair sweet potatoes with a lean protein source such as chicken or seafood to help slow the absorption of carbohydrates in the body. Sweet potatoes are typically harvested in late August to early November. They're available in stores year-round, but are most flavorful in late fall and winter months.

High fiber: Sweet potatoes are rich in fiber that helps the body in many ways. Fiber improves digestion, prevents constipation, promotes regularity, and maintains good gut health. It also lowers the risk of type II diabetes. Regulate blood pressure: Sweet potatoes are rich in potassium.

The vegetable contains high levels of beta carotene, and is a rich source of potassium, fiber, and vitamins A and C. The health hype was further enhanced by global demand for the vegetable — especially in parts of Europe where it is too cold to grow them.

First, give it a squeeze. It'll be firm if it's fresh, and mushy if it's not. Other signs to check for are discoloration, shriveled skin, black or brown spots, and suspicious odors. And if your sweet potato is moldy or leaking juices, it's definitely over the hill.

North Carolina produces more sweet potatoes than any other state in the United States and has been a leader since 1971. [1] In 2021 its production represented 64 percent of total U.S. production.

You can still eat sweet potatoes if you have diabetes, assures Huff. The fiber content in sweet potatoes, especially if you consume them with the skin on, can help reduce spikes in your blood sugar. Plus, how you cook your sweet potatoes can also help reduce the extent to which your blood sugar rises.

China is the world's biggest producer and consumer of sweetpotato, where it is used for food, animal feed, and processing (as food, starch, and other products).

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.

What happens to your body when you eat sweet potatoes every day? ›

If you enjoy sweet potatoes, you can absolutely enjoy them daily. However, eating multiple sweet potatoes every day could cause a harmless condition called carotenodermia, where your skin turns yellow-orange. You may also want to be cautious about your sweet potato intake if you have a history of kidney stones.

Consuming sweet potatoes in excess can result in sweet potato side effects such as Vitamin A toxicity, which is manifested in skin rashes and headaches. Due to high fibre content, excess intake of sweet potatoes can result in bloating, stomach pain and diarrhoea.

Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato. Boiling may theoretically be best, but sweet potatoes are so incredibly healthy that the actual best way to prepare them is whichever way will get you to eat the most of them!

As colonization expanded across the Americas, enslaved Africans learned how to cook sweet potatoes. Miller said the potatoes may have resonated among enslaved people because they're somewhat similar to yams, a root vegetable grown in West Africa.

Native Americans were already growing sweet potatoes when Columbus arrived on America's shores in 1492. The sweet potato is not a potato, not even a distant cousin. Potatoes are tubers; sweet potatoes are roots. Sweet potatoes have been growing in the South since as early as 1648.

Sweet potatoes are a fall crop because they take 100-150 days to mature. They are planted in the spring and harvested late August to early November.

Fall Food Takeaways

Load your bag with the top fall foods: apples, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, dates, kale, pears, pomegranate, pumpkin, squash, and sweet potatoes.

This series, “A Connoisseur Speaks on Seasonal Vegetables” details the appeal of seasonal vegetables as seen by connoisseurs. The season for sweet potatoes is said to be from late autumn to winter.

Peak season for sweet potatoes is October to March.