There are many ways of cooking sweet potatoes such as baking, frying and even eating them raw, but in this article we’ll explain how to steam sweet potatoes so you can enjoy its benefits in full.
The Method
1. Wash the sweet potatoes in clean, running water. Remove all dirt using a vegetable brush.
2. Fill a steam pot with water and heat until boiling.
3. Place the sweet potatoes in the steam pot (on a steam tray, not directly in the boiling water — some people get this wrong!), close the lid and let them cook.
4. The cooking time varies depending on the size of the sweet potatoes and the size of the steam pot, as well as the number of sweet potatoes in the pot. This means you’ll need to check if the sweet potatoes are fully cooked by sticking a fork or chopstick into them. If the core of the sweet potatoes feel soft, they are fully cooked.
6. Carefully pick up the sweet potatoes using tongs and place them on a plate.
7. Let them cool down until they’re warm enough for you to hold between your fingers, and enjoy!
When steaming sweet potatoes, it’s best to steam them whole—not cut, sliced, or peeled. Of course you can eat them however you want, but here’s why it’s best to steam them whole.
Why is it Best to Steam Sweet Potatoes as a Whole?
Steam cooking is a good way of cooking food without burning it. You can lose the authentic flavor and nutrients if you cut or slice food because they can ooze out from the open sides, but steaming as a whole can prevent these losses. Once you’ve reached 100°C, it's easy to maintain this temperature because even if you use a higher heat, the temperature of steam doesn’t exceed beyond 100°C.
When you steam a big, whole sweet potato, it takes some time for the heat to be transferred to the core. During this steaming process, the sweet potato will go through saccharification (increasing the sweetness) which causes the temperature of the sweet potato to be sustained at a warm level for a lengthy period before becoming hot enough to cook through to the core. This is why steamed sweet potatoes taste sweeter than raw ones.
Steam cooking works by allowing vapor to come into contact with the ingredients, and when this vapor turns into water from the heat, this is when the food is cooked. This is why steam cooked foods are wet on the surface during the steaming process. These water particles can melt away the flavor and nutrients of the ingredients from the surface, which is why when you cut sweet potatoes into smaller pieces it may take a shorter time to cook, but the loss of flavor (including sweetness) and nutrients is greater.
So from now on, if you want to enjoy a simple, natural and healthy snack or meal, just steam up those good old sweet potatoes as a whole and serve it your way!
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