I can’t recall the first time I ate a Japanese sweet potato, but it was sometime on a trip to Japan. During the winter, you can buy ready-to-eat, roasted sweet potatoes off street carts throughout the country. I can live off these fluffy, buttery potatoes—known as satsumaimos in Japanese—and, thankfully, they’re easy to find at natural food stores and Asian markets. I probably buy a dozen at a time and eat at least five a week.
After decades of eating satsumaimos, I feel like I’ve perfected how to make the perfect roasted Japanese sweet potato. They should always be baked (never microwaved—gasp!), and I like to roast one every morning to have on hand for lunch or dinner. When life gets super busy, I’ll roast several at a time and simply reheat in the oven at mealtime.
My go-to way of eating a Japanese sweet potato is slathered with avocado, sprinkled with coarse sea salt, and then topped with steamed greens or broccoli and fresh sunflower sprouts. HEAVEN! But there are so many ways to enjoy this tuber packed with antioxidants, vitamins A and C, fiber, and potassium.
Serves 1
What you need:
- 1 Japanese Sweet Potato
What you do:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry sweet potato. Using a knife, scrape off any dark spots (which will result in bitterness), keeping most of the skin in place.
- Place sweet potato on baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until soft throughout. Skin will be slightly crispy and inside flesh should be bright yellow with no visible white spots.
- Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes before serving.
Healthy hints:
- Want some inspo on how to best enjoy your Japanese sweet potato? Here are a few tips!
- >> Top with almond butter and pomegranate seeds
- >> Add to pancake batter for sweet potato pancakes
- >> Roast in a sesame-miso glaze
- >> Purée into a sweet potato soup
- >> Whirl into a sweet potato smoothie
- >> Whip into fluffy mashed sweet potatoes
- >> Cut into sweet potato fries
- >> Bake into chocolate sweet potato brownies