You do not need to peel sweet potatoes before boiling. If leaving the peel on, you will need to pierce the skin of the potato with a fork a few times. Also, boiling a sweet potato with the peel will require slightly more time for it to cook through. What is this?
After rinsing and scrubbing, poke holes into the sweet potato with a large fork. This step enables them to release any excess moisture while baking in the oven. It is optional, but you can also drizzle a little oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper over each one if you'd like to eat the skin.
"Yes, it's good to prick them," Smith told Food52. "It pokes holes in the skin, which allows steam to escape. Otherwise, they could explode—it doesn't happen all the time, but it happens every once in a while. The potato is full of water it's trying to turn to steam, or water vapor.
I prefer to use coarse sea salt or kosher salt, but table salt is fine too. Poke holes – poking holes in the potatoes helps the steam escape. Simply use a fork and poke about 6 holes all around.
The pressure inside a sweet (or regular) potato can build up in a hot oven. Pricking small holes in the skin with a fork is an easy way to let that steam escape, avoiding a sweet potato disaster.
Why do I have to poke holes in the sweet potato? Poking holes in the sweet potato allows steam to escape from the potato, whose skin acts as a pressure cooker around it.
Prep the sweet potato: Thoroughly wash and scrub the sweet potato, then pat dry. Pierce the flesh with a fork 3 to 4 times.
Can you overcook a sweet potato? Yes, you can overcook a sweet potato. If you cook the potato for too long, the exterior will become dry, and the interior will become mushy. To prevent this, be sure to check on the potato regularly and remove it from the oven as soon as it's tender.
Place the sweet potato in a container of water. Keep the top 1/3 of the potato exposed by placing toothpicks into the sides. The pointed end should be down in the water. In a few weeks a vine with several stems will begin to sprout.
They can be boiled, roasted or steamed until tender, then mashed, puréed or simply just served as they are. Baked sweet potato, similar to a baked potato, should be cooked in a medium-hot oven for around 45 minutes.
Look for shorter, plump sweetpotatoes rather than longer narrow ones - long and narrow will be stringy. Also, choose smaller rather than large ones. The Beauregard, an early variety is very smooth textured and generally free of strings - it should be your first choice.
The ooze is actually referred to as "sap." It is made up of sugar and starch combined with the moisture found in the vegetable, and it escapes out of the damage made from the knife. The sap really equals the sweetness. If it's pouring out of your potato, that means it's a sweet and delicious vegetable.
Do you poke holes in potatoes before baking? We actually don't poke holes in our potatoes before baking! It is said that poking holes in the potato allows steam to escape the potato so it doesn't explode, but in reality, steam is actually able to escape from the skin (and we've never experienced a potato explosion!).
Do Sweet Potatoes Need to Be Peeled Prior to Roasting? You do not need to peel a sweet potato prior to cooking it in the oven. The skins of sweet potatoes are safe to eat, both raw and cooked, and contain nutrients such as fiber and antioxidants. Whether or not you peel the potato is completely personal preference.
Just be sure to store peeled potatoes in water for no more than 24 hours. After that, the cool refrigerator air will convert the starches in the potatoes to sugar, causing the flavor and texture of the spuds to change.
Once you've cut the sweet potatoes into wedges, an absolutely crucial step is soaking them in cold water. By soaking the wedges you draw out the starch from the potato.
Add enough cold water to cover potatoes and sprinkle with salt. Bring to boiling, cover, and cook until tender. How long to boil sweet potatoes: For one pound of sweet potatoes, cover the pan and cook sweet potatoes in the boiling salted water 20 to 25 minutes or until just tender.
Peeling is optional: leave the skin on for added nutrients. Just make sure to cut off any dark or black spots! Add to a pot and cover with 1 inch water. Bring the water to a boil.
If your sweet potato is oozing, soft and squishy, discolored, smelly, or have a bunch of sprouts, it's time to toss. If there are only a few sprouts and the sweet potato is still firm you can cut the sprouted portion off, cook and eat right away, or you can plant it!
Do I Need to Peel Before Boiling? You do not need to peel sweet potatoes before boiling. If leaving the peel on, you will need to pierce the skin of the potato with a fork a few times. Also, boiling a sweet potato with the peel will require slightly more time for it to cook through.
Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and let the potatoes cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until you can easily pierce several pieces (always test more than one) with a knife. Potatoes cut into small pieces will take less time to cook.
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.
How many sweet potatoes do you get from one plant? Typically, you'll be able to harvest 3-5 tubers per sweet potato plant, which is about 1-2 pounds. But if you live in a warmer climate, you may harvest six or more tubers per plant.