20 Hearty, Healthy Sweet Potato Recipes Full of Protein, Fiber, and Everything in Between (2024)

FAQs

What to pair with sweet potato for complete protein? ›

Lentils and sweet potatoes, when combined, provide a complementary amino acid profile that can contribute to a more complete protein intake.

Sweet potatoes are full of antioxidants, vitamins and fiber to support your eye, digestive and heart health. They're generally safe to eat daily, especially if you eat them with calcium to prevent calcium oxalate kidney stones. There are so many fun and tasty ways to eat sweet potatoes.

Chicken: Chicken, whether roasted, grilled, or pan-seared, complements the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes. You can season the chicken with herbs, spices, or citrus for a delicious contrast. Pork: Pork and sweet potatoes create a delightful combination.

Consuming sweet potatoes in excess can result in sweet potato side effects such as Vitamin A toxicity, which is manifested in skin rashes and headaches. Due to high fibre content, excess intake of sweet potatoes can result in bloating, stomach pain and diarrhoea.

How to tell if sweet potatoes have gone bad. If your sweet potato is soft in spots, smells rotten, or oozes a mysterious liquid, that potato should be discarded. Another sign that sweet potatoes have taken a turn for the worse is if they start growing stalky purplish sprouts.

Because of their higher sugar levels and high vitamin A content, you can likely enjoy them in moderation about two or three times per week. Eating these vegetables too often could lead to too much vitamin A intake or increase the potential for negative effects on your blood sugar.

Boiling sweet potatoes retains more beta-carotene and makes the nutrient more absorbable than other cooking methods such as baking or frying. Up to 92% of the nutrient can be retained by limiting the cook time, such as boiling in a pot with a tightly covered lid for 20 minutes.

Can we eat sweet potato and egg together? ›

It's for good reason, as these two ingredients offer you a pair of two crucial nutrients: protein and carbohydrates. So, when you start your day with these Sweet Potato Halves with Over-Easy Eggs, and you'll have both the energy to face a long to-do list and the nutrients your body needs to run at its best.

Then don't eat sweet potatoes and persimmon together. In fact, based on this list, it seems like persimmon is a fruit worth eliminating from your diet altogether.

Sweet potato intolerance

However, sweet potato contains a type of sugar called mannitol that can cause stomach pain, trigger bloating, and diarrhoea. Frequent symptoms after eating sweet potato might suggest that you are intolerant to foods that contain mannitol.

Because they are rich in beta-carotene, vitamins and fibre, sweet potatoes help the body to process the carbohydrates gradually, thus releasing the sugar slowly and keeping you happier for longer.

Eating a sweet potato post-workout is ideal as they contain copper, which can help replenish energy levels and protect the cardiovascular, nervous and skeletal system. It also strengthens the tendons needed to lift weights. Just one cup of baked sweet potato contains 36% of your daily copper needs.

Vegetables generally don't. However, they can be combined to make complete proteins. Tomatoes, for example, are lacking isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine and valine. Combine them with carrots and pumpkin seeds, and you have a complete protein.

In addition to the lack of fat, sweet potatoes are also deficient in tryptophan (approximately 0.7% total protein) and are low in other essential amino acids such as histidine and methionine [15,16].