Sweet potatoes are delicious. They have a starchy yet sweet taste for a tuberous root crop. They’re an excellent sort of beta-carotene, which is a powerful antioxidant (in other words, it assists in anti-aging). Beta-carotene is also a pro-vitamin for good measure.
With that said, can you microwave sweet potatoes? Sure you can. You can steam sweet potatoes in minutes with a microwave oven. Just read the article below to find out how.
Can You Microwave Sweet Potatoes or Not?
Yes, you can microwave a sweet potato. In fact, it has a shorter cook time. Due to this, the potatoes’ vitamins, minerals, and nutrients will remain intact while still being fully cooked. In contrast, the hour-long baking process tends to remove or steal away these nutrients from the raw sweet potato.
Cooking a sweet potato on your microwave isn’t all that different from baking a sweet potato on your oven, except this time it’s much quicker to do and there’s no preheating involved. The heat is derived from the exciting water molecules affected by the device’s microwave radiation, after all.
Not only will your microwaved sweet potato end up more nutritious. You can get to enjoy it almost immediately since it can get cooked from raw to edible in mere minutes. What’s not to like about that? Of course, the resulting quality of the potato will be debated as well.
How to Cook a Sweet Potato in the Microwave
To cook a sweet potato in your microwave, you need the potato itself as well as a seasoning, olive oil, and butter to taste. You can also cook it raw in order to make its natural taste stand out when push comes to shove. Either or will do.
Wash the Sweet Potato
Don’t forget to wash the potato first. It’s a root crop, meaning it should still be full of materials from the soil it was planted on. Don’t haphazardly just pop it into the microwave oven. You wouldn’t do this even if you’re baking it on a conventional oven.
Don’t be afraid to scrub the sweet potato, since you only need a $6 vegetable scrubber to assist you in such an endeavor. Obviously, don’t scrub it with soap and water as well as a dishwashing sponge. Do it right to get the dirt completely removed. Pat the vegetable dry with a dish or paper towel.
Serving the Potato Whole
Rub the skin with olive oil if you wish to serve the potato whole. From there, season the root crop with salt and pepper as well. Use an ordinary fork and pierce the potato about three or four times. These holes will serve as your pressure escape as the potato’s internal moisture is heated by microwave rays.
Put the vegetable on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave it on 100 percent power or the highest level of power allowable for your microwave oven for 5 minutes straight. Rotate it halfway through along the 2.5-minute mark.
If you’re microwaving 2 potatoes, make it 7 minutes. For 3 potatoes, make it 9 minutes. Just add two additional minutes to the base 5 minute cooking period for every additional potato added for microwaving. It’s like you’re steaming the potato using its own juices by going the microwave route.
Make Sure the Potato is Fork Tender
If after five minutes, the potato isn’t fork-tender, continue microwaving the potato in minute-long increments until it’s the desired softness or tenderness. For tender means when you stick a fork in it, it feels like mash potato.
You can also check if the inside is completely tender by using a paring knife to stab or pierce the potato all the way through its skin to its insides. Have the knife go right into the potato’s center. If there’s resistance then keep microwaving for about a minute before checking again.
The potato should be “mashed potato” soft instead of “apple” hard. The utensil should glide through its center. At least with forks and knives, you won’t have to bite the potato to test its softness!
Further reading: 11 Best Microwave Cooking Cookbooks
How to Serve the Sweet Potato
To serve, just slice the potato lengthwise then serve with salt, pepper, butter, and brown sugar (optional) as you wish. As already noted above, the potato is already quite sweet on its own, thus arguably making it more of a dessert than a vegetable meal.
Some prefer the crisp, dry skin of sweet potatoes baked inside a conventional oven. However, there are ways to achieve this result with a microwave oven, such as putting your sweet potato inside the broiler immediately after being cooked by the microwave.
You can also top it with a mixture of cheese, vegetables, and protein to turn this dessert item into a full meal. You can also try out recipes like “Sloppy Joe Sweet Potatoes” or “Taco Stuffed Sweet Potatoes”.
We personally serve it with brown sugar cinnamon butter to give it a unique tangy sweetness that only cinnamon can provide.
How to Store a Microwaved Sweet Potato
If you have leftover potatoes or potatoes left, you should meal prep them. Microwaved sweet potatoes will remain edible and tasty for about three days after they’ve been cooked. Just make sure to store them inside your refrigerator through an airtight container.
If you prepared them as part of a dessert or stew, they should last longer, but not much longer than a week. Make it a point to eat sweet potatoes as soon as you cook them. You should eat them fresh off of the microwave oven or conventional oven, as much as possible.
The starchy sweet spud will make you feel satisfied after eating them for much longer than even rice. There’s just something about them that’s quite filling. Also, they’re nutritious to boot. You could get quite healthy including this potato type into your diet.
Issues to Take Note
As a dependable meal option, sweet potatoes are right up there. They’re starchy food types that will keep you satisfied after consuming them for much longer than ordinary meals. What’s more, they’re sweeter than regular potatoes.
What’s not to like about this specific root crop? Well, making them is normally a time vacuum. They suck up all your time. You need a microwave oven because a regular oven requires you to preheat its interior before baking up these potatoes for upwards of an hour.
References:
- Lena Abraham, “How To Microwave A Sweet Potato“, Delish.com, September 22, 2020
- Melanie Fincher, “How to Cook a Sweet Potato in the Microwave“, AllRecipes.com, September 25, 2020
