As surprisingly tasty as potatoes but notoriously infamous (as a type of carbohydrate that the body rapidly digests, causing blood sugar and insulin to ‘raise and drop’) and whose abuse eventually leads to obesity, diabetes and Contributes to heart disease, its close relative, the sweet potato, is not only far more inept, but it is also virtuous and truly your friend and dearest friend.
I know we all can’t resist potatoes, and nothing compares to big-fat chips. The long wedges of potatoes fried on the outside are crunchy while the insides are soft and tender – now commonly referred to as ‘French fries’. How many of us can resist a hot baked potato with butter and sour cream or a velvety potato mash with butter, Parmesan and cream?
There’s no better fast food than Batata Vada Pav, and a Yellow Sukha Aloo Puri beats the hell out of Chole Puri, and no chaat is complete without at least potatoes in it. Then Aloo Paratha, Kashmiri Dum Aloo, Bihari Aloo Chokha, Aloo Tikki, Aloo Methi, Aloo Gobi, Aloo Palak, Cumin Potato, Lean Potato, Aloo Tuk, Aloo Bhaja, Potato in Masala Dosa, Potato in Mutton, Chicken in Potato, In Aloo Biryani, and I can go on with this never ending saga of Aloo. No matter how harmful it is for health, we all love potatoes. In the meantime, we’ve completely ignored its close cousin, the sweet potato or sweet potato.
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Known as ‘Ratala’ in Marathi and ‘Ratalu’ in Gujarati, I discovered sweet potato as a street food very late in my life and first of all. Traditionally, our street food has had a terrible reputation for being soaked with germs, bacteria, human grime, sweat; Or otherwise, fried, greasy and packed with trans fats resulting in instant heartburn. But here on the corner of the street was a solitary cart, what looked like a collection of strangely shaped nodular roots, which the seller, with its dark brown muddy skins, was roasting on live coal.
Out of curiosity and because I couldn’t resist the aroma, I stopped at the car and bought half a pound of roasted sweet potatoes. The seller roasted a fresh batch, cleaned the burnt skin, cut the tubers into cubes and sprinkled black salt and chaat masala, squeezed a little lemon and handed over the piping hot sweet potatoes in an old newspaper. The flesh flavor was savory with a slightly sweet but succulent soft texture, the result of slow roasting, the pungent spice of the chaat and lime, and the earthy flavor of the earthy and smoky coals that had just been smothered in . It was impenetrable, and I was sold.
You might not know about it, but sweet potatoes, which have all the flavor properties of potatoes and more, are also one of the healthiest foods you can eat. It is a great source of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and is rich in antioxidants. The fiber and antioxidants in sweet potatoes are great for gut health; They are also one of the richest natural sources of beta-carotene, a plant-based compound that converts to vitamin A in your body. In addition, sweet potatoes are packed with good energy-rich carbs, high water content and are a healthy alternative to normal potatoes and have been scientifically proven to help with weight loss. Do you need to know more?
One of my favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes is either boiled in a pressure cooker with a little salt or sliced, brushed with a little butter, placed on a greased tray and baked in the oven. goes. Better still is a creamy sweet potato mash, made the same way you would mashed potatoes. I would just add – easier with cream and butter. You can make sweet potato chaat just like you make aloo chaat, replacing boiled potatoes with sweet potatoes. You can make the best Aloo Tikki with sweet potato like Aloo Paratha. Actually, wherever you use potatoes, you can use sweet potatoes. Like a Vrat Ratlu Khichdi – this gluten-free khichdi is made with grated sweet potatoes, tempered with green chillies and lemon juice and is quick to make. Or, sabudana vada or sabudana khichdi with sweet potatoes. Imagine soft soaked sabudana cooked with a smattering of cumin, curry leaves and green chilies, topped with small chunks of sweet potato and garnished with peanuts, freshly grated coconut and coriander, along with a little lime.
It’s amazing how unconsciously we spend our lives, and often miss out on some of the wonderful and healthy things that happen right under our noses. I have decided that now I will step out of my comfort zone and find what has always been there but is out of my mind, my vision and my taste.
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Kunal Vijaykar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. What is the name of his youtube channel? The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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