Thursday thoughts: Cooking, storing and freezing sweet potatoes!

With a the fabulous sweet potato deals this week, I thought I would share some tips for cooking and freezing them. I plan to bulk cook and freeze sweet potato pies and mashed sweet potatoes. What are your favorite sweet potato recipes?

Posted 11:00 a.m. Nov 15, 2012 — Updated 11:00 a.m. Nov 15, 2012

Faye Prosser

In case you missed it, NC grown sweet potatoes are on sale at Lowes Foods for .27 per pound through 11/22/12 and Food Lion has them on sale for .27/lb through 11/22.

How to store raw sweet potatoes

According to GardenGuides.com HERE, raw sweet potatoes keep for about a month in a cool, dark and dry location at 55 - 60 degrees. If they are kept at room temperature, they last about a week. Garden Guides recommends storing them in a paper lined cardboard box. Do not refrigerate sweet potatoes or they can become hard inside.

Freezing sweet potatoes

The National Center for Home Food Preservation HERE, indicates that you should cook the sweet potatoes until almost tender in water, steam, pressure cooker or oven. Cool completely and then peel them. Pack into containers and leave a little head space and then freeze. One website I read indicated that you could freeze cooked sweet potatoes for 10 - 12 months. Click HERE, for more information including ways to keep the potatoes from darkening once cooked.

I plan to buy about 20 lbs. from Lowes Foods this week and make a combination of sweet potato pies and mashed potatoes for freezing.

Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Click HERE for the sweet potato pie recipe I plan to try from AllRecipes.com. I am going to amend the original recipe somewhat based on the reviews from others. Here are the changes I plan to make:

* Use 1 and 1/4 lbs. baked sweet potato

* Use 3/4 cup sugar instead of 1 cup with 1/2 white sugar and 1/2 brown sugar ( I am also going to make 1 with Truvia since my dad doesn't eat much sugar)

* Add 1 - 2 tbsp flour to help thicken it a little (many reviews said this helped a lot since it was a little too loose without the flour)

* Use evaporated milk instead of regular milk (the reviews indicate it is smoother and creamier with evaporated milk)

* Bake the sweet potatoes in foil in the oven at 400 degrees for about 1 hour and 10 minutes instead of boiling

I'll post pie pictures and the final recipe (and add it to the WRAL Recipe Database) once I make the pies with the revisions.

Baked sweet potatoes

One of my favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes is to simply bake them in foil for about 1.5 hours at 350 degrees until they are completely tender and juicy. Add a little butter and salt and that's it. Simply delicious! My husband and kids like butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg added to their baked sweet potatoes.

What are your favorite recipes or ways to eat sweet potatoes?

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