Sweet potatoes are a bone-building super food for supporting your bones in fall and winter with alkalizing vitamins and minerals. But there’s an asterisk here, and it’s about how you prepare these root vegetables.
Unfortunately, many of the most common sweet potato recipes emphasize added sugars — brown sugar, maple syrup, or molasses used to “glaze” roasted sweet potato slices or added to mashed sweet potato to make it sweeter. (Some of my readers may be familiar with a holiday dish of mashed sweet potatoes covered in, of all things, marshmallows.)
These acid-forming sugars, even if they’re natural (like maple syrup), tip the scales away from sweet potatoes’ inherent alkaline-forming state. At best, such recipes provide a neutral input that neither harms nor benefits your overall pH — and at worst, the negatives from the added sugars overwhelm the positives that the sweet potato brings to the table.
Sweet potato recipes that skip the sugar
Fortunately, there are a lot of recipes available that feature roasted sweet potatoes in warm salads (a great winter dish) that avoid adding sweeteners and focus instead on balancing the potato’s naturally sweet flavor with savory spices. For a hearty cold weather lunch, try this Warm Quinoa, Sweet Potato and Kale recipe.
Another recipe that I’ve found particularly intriguing is a dish that features roasted sweet potatoes, cranberries, almonds, and scallions in a mango chutney vinaigrette. It is a flavorful — and highly alkalizing — addition to your Thanksgiving or holiday meal menu. Find my take on this recipe below. Let me know how you like it!
Sweet potatoes are an alkalizing food we can all be thankful for. I encourage you to explore the many options you have for warm, savory sweet potato salads as a way to enjoy this healthy root and obtain its bone-supporting nutrients for your bones this holiday season and throughout the winter months ahead.
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad With Chutney Vinaigrette Recipe
Adapted from SeriousEats.com
Ingredients:
3 sweet potatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp mango chutney
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp minced garlic clove
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped scallions
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into 1-inch chunks.
3. Toss sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, cumin, and ginger. Spread on baking sheet. Roast until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally for even roasting.
4. Combine vinegar, chutney, mustard, garlic, and olive oil in a bowl and whisk to combine into dressing.
5. Remove potatoes from oven and allow to cool slightly (about 10 minutes).
6. Toss potatoes and cranberries with the dressing mixture.
7. Transfer to serving platter and scatter almonds over top. Serve warm or room temperature.
Serves 6.
To understand the full nutritional picture, visit our guide to bone-building nutrition essentials.
