How to Cook Sweet Potato and Recipes to Get You Started

Sweet potatoes are a nutritional powerhouse that offers up so many fun and delicious options. Check out our tips on how to cook sweet potatoes in the oven, microwave, slow cooker, and air fryer; foods that go well with them; and sweet potato recipes you’ll love.

Sweet Potatoes: A Favorite Fall and Winter Food

I try pretty hard to eat seasonally. I do this for two reasons: 1) it increases the chances that the produce I am buying is local and, therefore, more environmentally friendly (shipped shorter distances) and 2) because fresher produce tends to have more flavor!

Now that we are entering fall, that means shifting from summer squash to winter squash, from plums to pears, and from sweet corn to sweet potatoes. So I wanted to share tips on how to cook sweet potato and recipes that will inspire you to try these nutritional powerhouses in some fun, new ways.

Sweet Potatoes: A Nutritional Powerhouse

Of all of the fall and winter produce, sweet potatoes are one of my favorites. To me, they are like a slightly sweet, super nutritious blank canvas and the possibilities are endless. So, in addition to sharing tips on how to cook sweet potato and recipes to get you started, I also wanted to offer some really cool nutritional facts about them (just in case you need to some motivation to include more sweet potatoes in your diet).

Sweet potatoes are known as a “superfood” for good reason—they are packed with all kinds of goodness. To help you to get the full picture, I thought I’d share some nutritional facts. Sweet potatoes are:

• rich in Vitamin C, which helps with building up our immune systems, maintaining youthful looking skin, and digesting our food
• a good source of Vitamin D, which we hear so much about these days! Vitamin D helps stabilize our mood, increase energy, and build healthy bones, teeth, and heart
• wonderful for their iron content, which helps with energy and immune support
• great for magnesium, the anti-stress mineral. And who doesn’t need that?!
• a wonderful source of potassium, which helps to maintain our electrolyte balance and reduce swelling
• high in carotenoids, which help ward off cancer and also slow aging
• packed with fiber, which helps us to stay full longer, have healthy digestion, and maintain steady energy
• sweet but don’t give you a sugar rush. This is important for maintaining a healthy blood sugar level, which we all need help with!

Pretty amazing list of nutritional benefits, huh?! So, now that you’re hopefully even more inspired to eat these gems, let’s dig into how to cook sweet potato!

How to Cook Sweet Potato

One of the things that I love about sweet potatoes, aside from their flavor and nutritional heft, is that they are very forgiving to cook with and can be prepared in many ways. So, I wanted to share some of my favorite ways to prepare sweet potatoes.

How to Cut a Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes are very dense, which can make cutting them a little intimidating for some people. If this applies to you, my first piece of advice is to make sure you are use a sharp knife as this will make chopping a sweet potato much easier. If you’ve got a nice sharp knife or just want further guidance, check out our video on how to cut a sweet potato:

Raw

Did you know you can eat sweet potato raw? My favorite way is to shred it and enjoy it in wraps, salads, and summer rolls.

Sautéed

Sweet potato is easy to sautée. Just add a little extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, or butter to a skillet and sauté diced or shredded sweet potatoes. They are ready surprisingly quickly, in 5 – 15 minutes (shredded will cook faster than diced). Here’s a sautéed sweet potato recipe to get you started.

Mashed, Whipped, or Pureed Sweet Potato

If you are a fan of mashed potatoes, then definitely give mashed sweet potatoes a try. Steam them as you would russet potatoes and then mash them with some butter, sour cream or plain yogurt, salt, pepper, and maybe a dash of cinnamon. Delicious! Check out our recipe for whipped sweet potatoes to see how easy it is!

Baked

Move over baked potato, there is another option in town. These can make a wonderful side dish or a hearty meal when topped with fun toppings. (Check out our post with 15 topping ideas for baked potatoes for lots of inspiration!) You can bake sweet potatoes in a variety of ways, in the oven, the slow cooker, the microwave, or the air fryer. Here are quick directions on how to do each.

How to Bake Sweet Potatoes in the Oven

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Rinse and scrub the sweet potatoes until they are clean of any remaining dirt or grime and then pat dry. For more flavorful skin, rub the sweet potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt before baking.

Place the sweet potatoes directly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (for easy clean up) and bake them for 45 – 60 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a knife, turning them once about halfway through.

How to Bake Sweet Potatoes in the Slow Cooker

Rinse and scrub the sweet potatoes until they are clean of any remaining dirt or grime and then pat dry. Pierce the sweet potato a few times with a fork.

Place the sweet potatoes in your slow cooker. Cook them on low for 6 – 8 hours or until they are tender.

Tip: If you like a crispier skin on your baked sweet potato, try throwing the already cooked potatoes into the oven or toaster oven at 400° F for 3 – 5 minutes. 

How to Make Baked Sweet Potatoes in the Microwave

Rinse and scrub the sweet potatoes until they are clean of any remaining dirt or grime and then pat dry. Pierce the sweet potato a few times with a fork.

Place sweet potato on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 2 minutes, flip over, and microwave for another 2 minutes. Check your sweet potato for doneness and then keep microwaving in 30-second spurts until your sweet potato is fork tender.

Tip: If you like a crispier skin on your baked sweet potato, try throwing the already cooked potatoes into the oven or toaster oven at 400° F for 3 – 5 minutes. 

How to Bake Sweet Potato in the Air Fryer

Rinse and scrub the sweet potatoes until they are clean of any remaining dirt or grime and then pat dry. Pierce the sweet potato a few times with a fork.

For a basket-style air fryer, place your sweet potato in the basket of the air fryer and air fry at 370° F for 35-45 minutes, or until fork-tender.

For a toaster oven-style air fryer, place your sweet potato on the tray and bake at 350° F for 20 minutes. Then flip them and cook for another 10-20 minutes, or until fork tender.

Roasted

This is probably my favorite way to cook sweet potatoes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, dice or slice them up, toss them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you want, and then spread them evenly on a baking sheet. Roast for 30 – 35 minutes, until tender. I really love them when they are starting to get a little crispy on the outside!

Check out our recipes for roasted sweet potato slices or sweet and spice roasted sweet potatoes!

Note: You can also use this roasting technique to make sweet potato fries. Just cut them into French fry shape, spread them out in a single layer with some space in between, and roast away.

Sweet Potato Toast

One of the new and trendy ways to eat sweet potatoes is as toast. Check our our guide on how to make sweet potato toast for inspiration and topping ideas!

Foods to Eat with Sweet Potatoes

Many people tend to think of sweet potatoes as a Thanksgiving side dish with marshmallows on top, but there are so many other great flavors to pair with them. Here are some of my favorites so that you can start to make your own sweet potato recipes and see that the options are really endless!

Cinnamon: this is great to pair with sautéed or roasted sweet potatoes, it is also a nice pairing in soups, stews, and chilis.

Chili Powder: one of my favorites. I love it on roasted sweet potatoes, including sweet potato fries, and in chilis.

Black Beans: there is something wonderfully natural and earthy about this pairing. I love this combo in tacos (see recipe below) and burritos, but also in chilis and soups.

Feta: The saltiness and sharpness of the feta with the gentle sweetness of the sweet potato is a combination that is to die for. (Check out the Brazilian-Style Power Bowl recipe below for inspiration.)

Rosemary: Mixing this herb into sautéed or roasted sweet potatoes is bright and delicious.

Ginger: the spiciness of ginger and the sweetness of sweet potato make a natural pairing that is delicious sautéed, roasted, and in soups and stews.

Lime: the acidity and sourness will bring that sweet potato to life! It is especially delicious when also paired with chili powder for smokiness.

Sweet Potato Recipes

Here are some of my favorite Scramble sweet potato recipes that will help you to see all that sweet potatoes are capable of.

Warm Sweet Potato Salad with Pecans: Creamy, sweet, and smoky, this warm salad is perfect for fall!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos with Avocado Crema: A favorite meal in my house. This is a 30-minute meal that everyone will think is fancy and fun!

North African Super Foods Stew: Warm, nourishing, and so, so flavorful. This is a Scramble favorite.

Brazilian-Style Power Bowls: With beans, greens, and sweet potatoes, this meal is so healthy but also packs a flavorful punch.

Sweet Potato Pie: Can’t forget dessert! This is a fun alternative to pumpkin pie, but with less added sugar thanks to the natural sweetness of the sweet potato.

Do you have favorite sweet potato recipes or pairings? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

And if you’d like further inspiration that will help to get dinner on the table every night, sign up for a free trial of our online meal planning service to see how simple cooking can be!

Looking for more inspiration for some of your favorite staples? Check out our posts on butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, cauliflower, greens, corn on the cob, mango, and peanut butter.

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