Purple Sweet Potato – A Native Experience…
While I had previously read that this vegetable is known for being quite nutritious (contains the antioxidant polyphenol along with vitamin C) while also sweet, I was still not certain of the best method cook or season this native potato.
Therefore I did what any other person may have done – I checked out various recipes online and began my own endeavor to make it suitable for my palate. I managed to find a recipe calling for your typical method of making mashed potatoes, then added thyme, salt, pepper and milk at the end.
The result? A bit bland and needing a dash more of something else. In turn my husband, (a pilot who manages to find time to cook as if he were trained at le Cordon Bleu in Paris) advised we try a bit of brown sugar and butter as we had used on our sweet potatoes back in the U.S. And voila!
A bit of substitution in the recipe and our purple sweet potato had complimented our meal perfectly. Fortunately this vegetable is versatile as it can be eaten as a side dish, served over a salad, mashed, roasted or mixed with other vegetables and even made into potato tempuraDeep fried seafood and vegetables that have been dipped in batter made from water, flour, and eggs. .
Next up? Perhaps it may be interesting to try purple potato ice cream, a very popular treat in Okinawa. While it may be a bit surprising to see purple on your plate once you taste this local food you may be pleasantly satisfied. Plus it’s nice to experiment with the local food and cuisine known to the island, as you never know what you may come up with and begin to enjoy.
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