Whether it's baked, mashed, roasted, or mixed into a pie, there are so many ways you can enjoy this royally colored sweet potato. These 17 vegan and vegetarian recipes use easy to find ingredients and fairly simple cooking techniques. You'll just need fresh purple sweet potatoes or even leftover cooked mash will work in some of these too.
What Are Purple Sweet Potatoes?
They are root vegetables, similar to orange sweet potatoes, that come in two main varieties:
- Okinawan – Light brown/white skinned and can fit in the palm of a large hand. Grown in Hawaii and exported. Okinawa is an island in Japan and a designated blue zone where people live historically longer lives than other populations in part due to these purple potatoes.
- Stokes – Purple skinned and the shape of longish, regular orange sweet potatoes
The Stokes variety is a registered trademarked named, non-GMO purple sweet potato grown in California and found in grocery stores like Whole Foods Market.
Not To Be Confused With Ube
Ube is a Filipino yam that grows on a vine above ground and has a dark brown, rough skin. Purple sweet potatoes may be called ube, but they are technically different.
Savory Purple Sweet Potato Recipes
Even though it's sweet, purple sweet potatoes can be made into a number of savory dishes to serve with dinner instead of after dinner.
Baked Purple Sweet Potato Mash
Maybe the easiest thing to do with purple sweet potatoes is just to bake them in the oven and smash them into a creamy mash. The bright purple color pairs brightens up the plate and makes a stunning contrast as a bed for proteins or next to salad greens.
I like to serve this sweet purple potato mash with duo of Hawaiian salmon and Lomi salmon. Instructions in the recipe are also provided for making a traditional mashed potato via the boiling in water method.
Oven Baked Purple Sweet Potato Fries
Another great oven baked method for cooking purple sweet potatoes is to slice them into fries. Toss them with some oil, fresh herbs, garlic and salt, and they take just about 10-15 minutes on 2 sides to get golden brown and crispy.
Serve with a vegan lemon garlic tahini sauce or dipping sauce of your choice. This would make such a fun side dish for a burger, sandwich, or fried fish, or a unicorned theme party.
Purple Sweet Potato Waffles
You don’t need any flour to make these waffles. By just grating the purple sweet potatoes and adding eggs, you can make these purple hued sweet potato “waffles.” They’re almost like hash brown except purple.
These would make such a fun breakfast next to eggs or simply drizzled with some maple syrup and fresh berries.
Purple Sweet Potato Soup
Inspired by the classic Russian borscht, the comforting cold soup made with red beets, this version blends in purple sweet potatoes along with the beets. This is a thick ‘soup’ served warm as an appetizer or main dish.
Purple Sweet Potato Dip
To go even thicker than a soup, try a purple sweet potato dip, especially if you’re tired of eating hummus all the time. With its refried bean texture, it could also be served as the filling for a taco, quesadilla or burrito. Roast chopped purple sweet potatoes with chopped onion, then blend in a food processor with smoked paprika, tahini, lemon juice, chili flakes and salt. Serve with your favorite raw veggies..
Purple Sweet Potato Congee
A bowl of soupy rice porridge is a classic Taiwanese and Chinese dish when you’re feeling sick or your tummy doesn’t feel so good.
It is also a traditional Asian breakfast. While congee is commonly made with chicken, there are also vegan versions made with orange sweet potatoes. This version has chunks of purple sweet potatoes and can be made in 25 minutes.
Pies
Purple Sweet Potato Pie with Toasted Meringue
If orange sweet potato pie is a southern comfort dream, purple sweet potato pie might be a tropical island comfort food come true. This version gets even better with a torched swiss meringue on top.
The purple sweet potato base is similar to a regular sweet potato pie with mashed, cooked purple sweet potatoes mixed with evaporated milk, butter, brown sugar, eggs, and spices.
Instructions are also included for making your own homemade buttery pie crust using the vodka trick. The filling is then baked 300 degrees F to ensure “an evenly baked, silky smooth custard that never curdles” for 55-65 minutes.
Purple Sweet Potato Pie
This version of a purple sweet potato pie does not feature a meringue topping but leaves the surface “naked,” similar to a pumpkin pie except this one is violet hued instead of orange.
The recipe is adapted from the very popular cookbook, The Fearless Baker, by Erin Jeanne McDowell, named one of the best baking books of 2017 by the New York Times.
Breads
Purple Sweet Potato Buns
In addition to sandwich bread, you can make soft and fluffy dinner rolls with purple sweet potatoes. This recipe does use milk, butter, and eggs, and can be stored up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Purple Sweet Potato Bread
Elevate your white sliced sandwich bread and make some purple sliced sandwich bread. And you don’t even need any eggs. Made with just purple sweet potatoes, flour, yeast, butter, salt, sugar, and some time for the dough to rise, you give your white bread the royal treatment with this recipe.
Desserts
Purple Sweet Potato Souffle
A souffle is the French term for a baked egg dish. While a classic souffle whips the egg whites separately into a meringue, which is then folded into the custard of egg yolks, this version simply mixes in whole eggs into the cooked purple sweet potatoes for ease.
Coconut milk, butter, baking spices are monkfruit sweetener are added before it’s poured into a baking dish and baked for 15 minutes. A topping of pecans and dried cranberries is added and the pudding is baked for another 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Since the recipe uses monkfruit sweetener, there is no refined sugar typical of most souffles.
Purple Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies
There are so many varieties of the ever versatile chocolate chip cookie. Here is one with purple sweet potato that shades this popular cookie with a purple hue you may have never seen before. Oh and the recipe is gluten free and vegan, if you use dairy free chocolate chips.
Mashed purple sweet potatoes are mixed with maple syrup, coconut sugar, cashew butter and vanilla. That mix is folded into the dry ingredients of oat flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. The chocolate chips are gently mixed in, scooped onto a baking sheet, and baked for 12-14 min at 350 degrees F.
Purple Sweet Potato Tapioca Jelly
A popular Malaysian dessert, called Bubur Cha Cha, features chunks of purple sweet potatoes with tapioca jelly, sweetened coconut cream, and tapioca pearls. The recipe includes instructions for making your own tapioca jelly.
Filipino Ube Jam
Ube halaya, also known as purple yam jam, is a classic Filipino sweet treat. It’s traditionally made with ube, the purple yam that is technically different from a sweet potato. However, you this recipe works with purple sweet potato too.
Fresh ube can be hard to find, so Filipino grocery stores will sell frozen ube that’s already grated and ready to use.
Grated purple potato is cooked with a variety of milks: evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and coconut milk. Butter is added for sheen. Salt, vanilla, and lemon juice enhance the sweetness and flavor of the jam.
The ingredients cook in a pot for 40-60 minutes. The purple sweet potatoes need time to cook, and the milks reduce down with the potato until it becomes thick consistency almost like mashed potatoes.
Have a spoonful by itself, smear on toast or mold into a puddings with a sweet salty coconut sauce for a taste of the beautiful Philippine islands.
Puddings
Purple Sweet Potato Tapioca Pudding
This pudding is great for dessert or a special occasion like Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is celebrated in February when the new year begins according to the lunar calendar. There is some debate whether the holiday is called Chinese or Lunar New Year. In any event, pudding is pronounced “gao” in simplified Chinese which also means “high” or “of a superior grade.”
According to the recipe, “has come to symbolize a higher income and position. In other words, it sums up to having a great year ahead.”
This pudding is made with a mixture of purple sweet potatoes, tapioca pearls, sugar, coconut milk, whole milk, and gelatin. The mixture is then poured into molds and refrigerated to set for at least four hours.
Purple Sweet Potato Chia Pudding
A list of puddings would not be complete without a chia pudding. Typically, you see the little black chia seeds suspended in a white colored milk. However, this version blends in cooked purple sweet potatoes along with cardamom, maple syrup, and vanilla. Use a plant based milk, and this pudding is completely vegan too.
Paleo Purple Sweet Potato Chocolate Pudding
Gelatin used to thicken puddings is most commonly made with extracts from animal collagen. If you prefer a vegan pudding, this version is thickened with the purple sweet potato itself. Cocoa powder, coconut sugar, and vanilla are mixed into the purple sweet potato mash to make a pudding. Serve chilled and top with your favorite berries.
Final Tips on Cooking with Purple Sweet Potatoes
- Anything you can do with an orange sweet potato, you can do with a purple one too. Think of sweet brown sugar glazes, mashed with butter, or baked into pies.
- Double your "money," and spread out the purple sweet potato love over two days. Make a double batch of baked mash one day, and turn the leftovers into a pudding or other sweet treat.
- Think coconut milk instead of cow milk. Since purple sweet potatoes are heavily consumed in island destinations like the Phlippines and Hawaii, try using coconut milk in the recipe instead of regular milk or heavy cream.
- Finally, and most obviously, add purple sweet potatoes to your menu when you want an extra pop of color, unicorn blessings, or tropical vibes. That purple color offers health benefits in addition to the potatoes naturally sweet flavor.
Related
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