Do you eat sweet potatoes when it’s not Thanksgiving? I do! And just like there’s a perfect way to make mashed potatoes, there’s a perfect way to make sweet potatoes too. It’s not complicated, or time-consuming, it’s just… perfect.
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Of course you’ll want to start with peeling and roughly chopping 4 medium sweet potatoes.
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Boil those suckers for about 25 minutes, until they are very soft.
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After they’re drained, I like to mash them up just a little so that things go easier with my hand mixer later on, but you can skip this step if you don’t mind huge chunks of sweet potato being violently flung around your pot.
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Now the important part. Add in 1/3 cup of Minute Maid orange juice (and sadly, yes, the brand is important. There are brands of orange juice with gluten in them, horrifying as that is…) In general, you may or may not need to avoid orange juice that has been fortified with calcium in the form of calcium lactate. What it boils down to is, most calcium lactate sources in the US are derived from non-dairy sources, but foreign-sourced calcium lactate could very possibly be made with whey, and some food manufacturers in the US do use the whey form as well. The only way to be sure is to contact the manufacturer, and always check your labels!
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The second key ingredient is 1/4 cup of honey. And that’s it! Now all you have to do is get out your hand mixer and whip those sweet potatoes into oblivion.
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Now why, I ask you, would you ever restrict something so scrumptious to just one holiday? Aside from being tasty, sweet potatoes are also very healthy, and deserve to be eaten year-round. Some people prefer to make them a little less healthy and melt a layer of marshmallows on the top. I’m morally opposed to it myself, but only because I don’t particularly like marshmallows. If you go that route, I believe Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows are gluten-free, but like I said, I don’t have occasion to check up on that particular food product very often, so you’ll want to double-check before you buy.
By the way, you see that other colorful pile in the background? That’s nothing but a bag of frozen “fajita vegetables” (i.e. red peppers, green peppers, and onions) with a couple handfuls of frozen corn thrown into the mix. Instant side dish! I made this post a two-fer to try to make up for my sporadic summertime posting. It’s a busy time of year, and I’m sure some of you out there are looking forward to Back to School time just as much as I am.
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Happy Eating!
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Sweet Potatoes
4 medium sweet potatoes
1/3 cup 100% orange juice
1/4 cup honey
Pepper Medley
1 bag frozen fajita vegetables
1 cup frozen corn
I like to bake sweet potatoes. When they’re done, I can eat them like a baked white potato, or zip the skins off and mash them up. The skins come off easier than a white potato. Got to try a little OJ.
And if you can’t find a safe brand of OJ you could just squeeze one or two actual oranges for the juice.