Genius Recipes
Is This the Most Genius Way to Cook Sweet Potatoes?
Highly likely, according to science and Nik Sharma.
Every week in Genius Recipes—often with your help!—Food52 Creative Director and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that will change the way you cook.
For as friendly as sweet potatoes seem, I’ve been faced with too many gnarled, leathery husks when I’ve tried to roast them. Or softer but surprisingly flavorless flesh the times I’ve hustled them through the microwave or steamer. (Just me?)
It turns out I was doing all of the wrong things to my emphatically not-potatoes (1). And now I know exactly why, thanks to molecular biologist turned food writer Nik Sharma and his groundbreaking new cookbook The Flavor Equation. What I should have done? A little of column A, a little of column B.
As Nik explains in this week's episode of The Genius Recipe Tapes podcast, sweet potatoes benefit from steaming to break down their stringy fibers and render them spoonable. "Steam helps destroy that structure, so you’ve got then this creamy texture that comes about." But there’s no need to break out a pot of simmering water: Nik likes to split raw, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes open, smear them with butter, then cover them tightly to let them first steam in their own juices (and bonus butter juices).
Then, after 20 minutes of softening and drinking up slow-browning butter, he whips off the cover, flips the potatoes onto their cut faces and lets them roast and caramelize against the hot sheet pan for another 20 minutes or so.
Why add this step and not just let them finish becoming buttery pudding under wraps? As Nik discovered in writing The Flavor Equation, “Research shows that roasting produces at least 17 more aromatic molecules than are achieved through boiling or microwaving, and most of them in higher concentrations.” Sugars concentrate as water spritzes away; skin tightens; the Maillard reaction takes hold.
I finally understand why my daughter’s first sweet potatoes, steamed in thick rounds, tasted so unrepentantly flat (sorry, kid)—and, with my education from Nik, I won’t forget it. (2) The resulting slabs are the creamiest sweet potatoes I’ve made at home, with the deepest and most developed flavor. (3)
Nik finishes his with what looks like an elaborate parade of toppings—sweet-tart maple crème fraîche, crunchy peanuts and scallions, fragrant lime zest, prickling chile flakes—that takes all of five minutes to assemble. Whether they’re brightening your Thanksgiving table or dinner plate tonight, sweet potatoes may have never been friendlier.
(1) Potatoes are tubers; sweet potatoes are naturally more fibrous "tuberous root" vegetables (in the same family as cassava and true yams)—and they want to be cooked differently!
(2) For more of Nik breaking down the science that can make us better cooks (who don’t cry over their onions), check out his Food52 column The Kitchen Scientist.
(3) As my husband said, unironically, “I don’t like sweet potatoes. These are awesome.”
| 4 | sweet potatoes (each 7 ounces [200 grams]), preferably a yellow-fleshed variety such as Garnet or Jewel |
| 2 | tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature |
| Fine sea salt |
| 4 | sweet potatoes (each 7 ounces [200 grams]), preferably a yellow-fleshed variety such as Garnet or Jewel |
| 2 | tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature |
| Fine sea salt |
| 1/2 | cup (120 grams) crème fraîche or sour cream |
| 1 | tablespoon maple syrup or honey |
| 1 | tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice |
| 2 | teaspoons fish sauce (optional, see Author Notes) |
| 1/2 | teaspoon freshly ground black pepper |
| Fine sea salt | |
| 2 | tablespoons thinly sliced scallions, both green and white parts |
| 2 | tablespoons roasted peanuts |
| 1 | teaspoon red chile flakes, such as Aleppo, Maras, or Urfa |
| 1/2 | teaspoon lime zest |
| 1/2 | cup (120 grams) crème fraîche or sour cream |
| 1 | tablespoon maple syrup or honey |
| 1 | tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice |
| 2 | teaspoons fish sauce (optional, see Author Notes) |
| 1/2 | teaspoon freshly ground black pepper |
| Fine sea salt | |
| 2 | tablespoons thinly sliced scallions, both green and white parts |
| 2 | tablespoons roasted peanuts |
| 1 | teaspoon red chile flakes, such as Aleppo, Maras, or Urfa |
| 1/2 | teaspoon lime zest |
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Written by: Kristen Miglore
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78 Comments
Had to make some adjustments because one of the people I was feeding is intolerant to dairy. So used a really good quality olive oil instead of butter for the potatoes. I know it’s not the chemical reaction we’re looking for, so can’t wait to try it the real thing!!
Also subbed out the creme fraiche topping with a spicy coriander chutney - so in essence, this recipe was the base idea that I riffed on.
Can’t wait to make it “exactly as written”! Really tickled by the chemistry angle!!
Will look for them and give them a try. Thank you for the tip!!
I must say, it was amazing!! The texture of the potato was so smooth and creamy. None of those fibrous bits. I will never roast my sweet potatoes any differently.
Looking forward to repeating this recipe for company when the COVID coast is clear. Thank you!
Omg! Just grease those babies and stick ‘em in the oven!
I strongly dislike soft sweet potatoes, they just don't taste caramelized and are weirdly gloopy to me, and I only buy japanese/korean sweet potatoes.
In fact I buy little bags of korean chewy dehydrated sweet potato chunks so I don't need to worry about accidentally making soft sweet potato 😥but even those aren't quite as delicious as oven-roasted chewy, leathery sweet potato
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