You might have noticed those recipes that call either for 1 cup of sliced sweet potatoes, one cup of cubed sweet potatoes, or mashed sweet potatoes. But how many sweet potatoes will you need to fill a cup? To make reading recipes and ultimately cooking as a whole easier especially for starters, we have made the experiments for you, to tell you exactly how many sweet potatoes you will have to buy.
To find out exactly how many sweet potatoes will there be in a cup, we took the issue into our own hands and went to the closest grocery store, where we went straight for the produce section. We went ahead and weighed 1 pound of sweet potatoes, which translated into around 3 medium potatoes, or 2 large ones. For our tests, we chose a medium sweet potato and went straight to measurements.
To fill a cup of sliced potato, we found that it would take around 1.25 medium sweet potatoes. You can fill the same cup with around 1.3 sweet potatoes cut into cubes. You can also fill a cup with 2 whole sweet potatoes if you were to mash them.
As you already know, sweet potato fries are becoming more and more popular in restaurants nowadays. If you want to fill a cup with sweet potato fries, you will need around 1.3 potatoes to do the trick.
Interesting info: Although most people think they are the same, yams and sweet potatoes are different from one another. They are even part of different families of produce! Yams are known to come from native parts of Africa and Asia, being related to grasses and lilies, while sweet potatoes come from the tropical parts of the American continents and come from the morning glory family.
This first part of the article will help you know the exact quantity you will need for your next recipe that calls for either a cup of diced, sliced or mashed sweet potatoes. This way, you will know exactly how many sweet potatoes you will have to buy for each recipe.
What Is a Sweet Potato
The sweet potato belongs to the morning glory family and is a type of climbing plant. It has large tuberous roots that are edible and taste good.
Most people confuse yams with sweet potatoes. Yams are rarely seen in the United States, as they are native to Asia and Africa. They come from the plant family of flowering vines, being related to lilies.
You can easily find sweet potatoes in grocery stores. They are known for their smooth skin and orange flesh and are actually less related to normal potatoes than they are to carrots.
Is a Sweet Potato a Fruit or Vegetable?
Sweet potatoes are categorized as vegetables. They are considered a type of starchy root vegetable.
Are There Different Types of Sweet Potatoes?
You can find around 400 different types of sweet potatoes all around the world.
Out of the 400 types, the two that are the most common in the United States will be the white sweet potato and the orange sweet potato.
What Does a Sweet Potato Look and Taste Like?
You will notice a starchy, sweet taste when eating sweet potatoes. Their skin will become crispy when you either fry, roast, or bake them at high temperatures. You can caramelize the skin of this vegetable if you oil or butter it, which would also make it’s inside tender.
Two other types of common sweet potatoes are the jewels and the Beauregard, which have bright orange flesh and orange skin.
What Can You Use a Sweet Potato For?
You can cook and eat sweet potatoes alone because they have a really great taste.
You can bake or french fry sweet potatoes just like you would do with white ones, with sour cream, herbs, and butter.
Unlike how you would eat the white potato, you can cook sweet potatoes with maple syrup or honey, for a delicious dessert. The sweetness of the sweet potato will become more pronounced with the help of heat.
Sweet potatoes have considerable amounts of antioxidants, vitamins, and fibers.
What Can You Substitute Sweet Potatoes With?
You can’t just substitute sweet potatoes for white ones, since they are very much different.
If you don’t have sweet potatoes but still want their taste in your dish, then you can try to add either white potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes in combination with beets or carrots, to give them the color and the sweet taste of the sweet potato.
Can Home Pets Eat Sweet Potatoes?
Dogs can eat and also enjoy the taste of properly cooked sweet potatoes. Raw sweet potatoes, on the other hand, shouldn’t be a part of your pup’s diet. When they are ingested raw, they can cause intestinal blockage or upset their stomach. Like everything else in life, sweet potatoes should also be enjoyed in moderation.
It’s basically the same situation for cats. They should avoid sweet potatoes in raw form but will enjoy properly cooked sweet potatoes.
Can a Sweet Potato Give You Gas?
If you know yourself to have mannitol allergies or sensitivities then you should avoid sweet potatoes. They contain mannitol, which can cause fermentation inside your intestines.
How to Properly Store Sweet Potatoes
If you think about using your refrigerator’s crisper to keep your sweet potatoes, you should know that this isn’t necessarily a good idea. When stored in a refrigerator, sweet potatoes will get a hard center and their taste will become quite unpleasant.
To keep them properly, you should put them in a dry, cool space like a dark pantry closet, root cellar, or even the basement.
How Long Until Fresh Sweet Potatoes Go Bad at Room Temperature?
As a general rule, you should expect sweet potatoes to last around 2 weeks when stored at room temperature, in your kitchen for example.
You can make them last longer, up to a month, if you store them in a dry and cool place.
How to Store Cut Fresh Sweet Potatoes
The best thing you can do is to only cut as much as you want to cook or eat, but if you did cut too many sweet potatoes, then you can simply put them in a bag or container with an airtight lid and place them in the refrigerator.
How to Store Sweet Potatoes in the Refrigerator
You can store your sweet potatoes in your refrigerator in the crisper area so that you can control the temperature and the potatoes are less exposed to air.
You can put them in the crisper, in an airtight container, along with ice-cold water. This will help them last even longer.
How Can You Freeze The Sweet Potatoes?
To freeze sweet potatoes you will have to first blanch them, to get rid of some of their water content. You can blanch sweet potatoes with the help of some boiled water. Place the sweet potatoes in boiling water and let them boil for about one to two hours until they are tender enough. You will then have to take them out and let them cool. The next step will be to wrap the sweet potatoes in parchment paper or aluminum foil and put them in an airtight bag, inside the freezer.
Cutting Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes can be cut in many different ways. You can basically cut them in any way you would do so with white potatoes. Just like you would do with a normal potato, you can mince, dice, cube, chop or slice a sweet potato.
You might also like our articles about the weight of lemon juice, bread crumbs, or grapes.
How to Clean Sweet Potatoes
Cleaning the sweet potato is one of the easy parts. All you will have to do is to scrub them under water, using either a dishcloth, a sponge, or your fingers.
Is the Skin of Sweet Potatoes Edible? Do I Have to Peel it?
The full skin of the sweet potatoes is edible and some even call it the healthiest and tastiest part of this vegetable.
Even so, most recipes will tell you to use a small knife or peeler to remove the skin of the potato.
If you choose to peel the skin, you can make crispy hash browns by cooking it in a skillet.
How to Slice Sweet Potatoes
To slice the sweet potato you can use a simple vegetable knife.
If we’re talking about a bigger quantity of sweet potatoes, then it would be better if you were to use a mandoline slicer, to do the job easier.
How to Cube or Chop a Sweet Potato
If you want to cube or chop sweet potatoes, all you will have to do is simply take a vegetable knife and cut them in uneven chunks.
How to Dice or Mince Sweet Potatoes
To properly dice sweet potatoes you will do something similar to when you chop them. In the end, dicing will mean cutting it in uniform sizes, while mincing will be just dicing into smaller uniformed sizes.
How to Mash or Puree Sweet Potatoes
Mashed sweet potatoes are among the most popular side dishes, considered a delicacy, and fairly easy to make as well.
Want to make mashed sweet potatoes? You can do this by boiling water in a pot, then adding chopped sweet potatoes, and letting everything cook until you can easily insert a knife in the flesh of the potatoes. After draining the sweet potatoes, mash them using a potato masher, an immersion blender, or a ricer, with seasonings and butter, just like you would do with white potatoes.
Some people think that pureeing sweet potatoes and mashing them is the same thing, but they are slightly different. The difference comes after draining when instead of mashing them, you will put them in a blender instead, and puree until smooth enough.
How to Grate or Shred Sweet Potatoes
If you use a box grater, then shredding or grating sweet potatoes is a pretty simple job. You can even use a grater attachment on your food processor.
YOu can remove the skin before grating or leave the vegetables as they come. It all comes down to personal preference.
How to Make Sweet Potato Juice?
Even if a lot of people have never heard of sweet potato juice, these vegetables can actually be turned into pretty delicious juice. The vegetables, as well as the juice that comes from them, contain a lot of beta carotene and a considerable amount of nutrients.
The easiest way to do it is by using a juicer to juice raw sweet potatoes.
Do Sweet Potatoes Have Any Seeds That Have To Be Removed?
Sweet potatoes have no seeds.
Are Sweet Potato Greens Edible?
You can eat the grees of sweet potatoes and they actually taste pretty good. You can even prepare them in recipes along with turnip greens and spinach.
How to Store Sweet Potatoes?
Did you know that there are quite a few types of sweet potatoes? Some of the most known are Covington, Beauregard, Kewell, Jersey, Okinawan, Kotokuki, Georgia Red, Goldrush, and Evangeline.
Short Term Sweet Potato Storage
Raw sweet potatoes should never be stored in the refrigerator. Instead, you should keep them unwashed in a dry and cool location, away from direct sunlight, to prolong their shelf life. You can actually store them in your pantry. Doing so will keep them edible for two weeks or so.
You can keep pureed or cooked whole sweet potatoes in the refrigerator for about one week until they go bad.
Sweet Potato Long Term Storage
Storing sweet potatoes in a cooler location will keep them edible for around one month, but the temperature should be of around 55°F (or 12.8°C).
You can freeze mashed sweet potatoes without a problem.