When Cooked Sweet Potatoes Are A Great Option For Soft Foods
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Continuing in my series of soft foods for those who are going through the process of getting dentures, today we review the options of the wonderfully nutritious sweet potato.
I have a couple of ways that I serve the tuber root that is naturally sweet in my home. I will share both ways with you in this article. One is extremely simple while the other takes a little preparation; both are really good!
Before we get to a couple of ways to enjoy the sweet potato, I thought you might be interested in the nutritional values of the sweet potato. It is a good source of simple starches, complex carbohydrates, fiber, protein, vitamin A, several of the B vitamins, vitamin C and vitamin E. It contains the minerals of calcium, iron, potassium and a few others. Did you know that a sweet potato has more potassium than a banana?
OK, so one of the simplest ways to serve sweet potatoes to your family is to use a can of the item shown below.
I know the can says "yams" but they actually use sweet potatoes. Many people interchange the words yams and sweet potato incorrectly. They are not really the same thing but that is another topic for another day.
I will tell you these canned sweet potatoes are seasoned so deliciously that all I do is just heat them up. The syrup has cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar...no need for anything else! They are really tasty just as they are.
The darker the color of the pulp of the sweet potato ... the more beta-carotene (vitamin A) it has.
The Sweet Potato Recipe That My Daughters Love The Most
I've been fixing this Sweet Potato Casserole for about 36 years and my daughters just absolutely love it. I didn't make it for Thanksgiving one year and I was just about disowned by my oldest daughter. She now makes it for her family, too.
Ingredients:
2 (15 oz) cans of sweet potatoes
1 (14 oz) can pineapple tidbits, (undrained)
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
Butter
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Drain the sweet potatoes and discard the liquid. Drain the pineapple tidbits, saving the juice from the can.
Melt the 4 tbsp of butter.
In a medium sized bowl mash the potatoes with a potato masher. Add the melted butter and brown sugar. Stir until it is combined well.
Stir in the pineapple juice until you have the desired consistency. Fold in the pineapple tidbits and the marshmallows.
Butter a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish and spoon in the potato mixture.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
You might not think that pineapple would be good with sweet potatoes but you would be incorrect. This is really a delicious addition to the typical sweet potatoes that have the melted marshmallows we are accustomed to. The pineapple adds a bit of tartness that works well with the sweetness from the brown sugar and marshmallows.
Whether you need soft foods in your diet or not, sweet potatoes are an excellent choice to include with your meals. In fact, the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) rated the sweet potato the most nutritious vegetable of all to eat.
Whether you need soft foods in your diet or not, sweet potatoes are an excellent choice to include with your meals. In fact, the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) rated the sweet potato the most nutritious vegetable of all to eat.
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