Before they became the darling of the health food-crowd, sweet potatoes were the kind of food Americans primarily thought of as a holiday staple, and ate doused in butter and even more sweetness in the form of marshmallows and brown sugar. But, as it turns out, all those nutrition-obsessed bloggers weren’t wrong to substitute regular French fries with sweet potato fries, as the tuber happens to have a ridiculously high amount of vitamin A. (Like, orders of magnitude greater than your average white spud, and three times more than the FDA suggests for your recommended daily amount.) So if you really are looking for small, achievable ways to improve your healthy eating habits, substituting sweet potatoes for the regular kind isn’t a bad place to start. Or maybe you’re just riding the seasonal produce train straight through to Root Vegetable Town and are in need of new ideas for how to use these cold-weather staples for the foreseeable future. Or you just really enjoy making naturally sweet foods taste sweeter—whatever, you do you, marshmallow lovers. We’ve got a collection of sweet potato recipes from the archives here just for you.Sadly, marshmallows are not vegan. So to keep as true to form as possible for this casserole, we topped it with a cinnamon-brown-sugar-pecan crumble.Just before serving, this baked root veg mash gets a few minutes in a 450°F oven for a nice golden brown crust on top.A light cornstarch batter gives these sweet potato fries an extra layer of crunch for an ideal side to your favorite burger.Really commit to the health food lifestyle and forego frying altogether. Our culinary director Farideh Sadeghin also suggests tossing these fries, before they go in the oven, in a spice mix of your choice, like curry powder, Old Bay, or za’atar.Double down on the sweetness here with a can of sweetened condensed milk in the custard of this pie, then cut through it with a crème fraiche whipped cream.Warm, ooey-gooey brie and a little bit of honey make perfect sense with sweet potatoes, but what really sets this dish off is the sprinkling of chili flakes for just a little heat.Creamy mashed sweet potatoes studded with English walnuts for a little texture, then topped with deeply caramelized onions, make for a surprising addition to your holiday table, or just the dinner table any night of the week.Sweet potatoes get more of a savory treatment in this soup, brightened up with fresh ginger, lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, and red curry paste.Sure, you could throw all of your Thanksgiving leftovers onto a sandwich the next day, but turning them into pizza toppings is even better.This spicy, acidic ceviche needs a sweet, fatty background, and buttery mashed sweet potatoes with grilled avocados are just the right match.Korean sweet potatoes have more of a red or purple-ish skin with white insides, as opposed to the all-orange tubers you might find more commonly at the supermarket, but they taste just as sweet and homey in this classic holiday dish.This is a truly luxurious appetizer that would feel right at home on a holiday table, but would probably be just as much of a crowd pleaser as a finger food for your next party.The best part about cooking with root vegetables in the long cold months ahead is that they’re super easy to cook all at the same time, thrown together into the same dish, because their flavors are so complimentary. Here, this two-step mash comes together in under 25 minutes.Autumn. On. A. Plate. Next!This chickpea socca pancake is delicious on its own, for a light breakfast or snack, but with this subtly spicy sweet potato puree and a fried egg on top, it’s a sublime experience.Ahhh, the rainbow-esque bounty of the fall farmer’s market!And if all else fails and you’re sick and tired of all those healthy sweet potatoes, slice ‘em up real thin and drop ‘em in a fryer til they’re extra golden and crispy.
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