Last year my purple sweet potatoes did really well. These made up the bulk of my sweet potato harvest, and we've been enjoying them as oven fries or cubed and roasted with turnips or sometimes other veggies. The other day, I decided to try them in a sweet potato pie for our weekend dessert.
I peeled a couple of them, cut them each into several large chunks, and simmered until tender. Then I ran them through the blender.
I thought the resulting puree was a gorgeous color.
To make the pie, I used my no-dairy Sweet Potato Honey Pie recipe. The addition of the golden honey and bright yellow egg yolks changed the color a little, but it still baked up as a distinctly purple pie.
Or maybe that's more of a purplish brown, but one would never know the difference in a blind-folded taste test. It was a yummy sweet potato pie.
I had some puree left over, so the following Sunday, I made sweet potato pancakes. Except these were nowhere near purple!
My guess is that the pH of the batter changed the color. For my baked goods, I
always use a baking soda + acid combination from How To Bake Without Baking Powder.
For these, it was baking soda + sour cream which gave me beautifully fluffy
green pancakes! They were delicious with a little maple syrup. Very fun.
Anyone else experimenting with something different?
20 comments:
Yum! I love regular sweet potato pie, so that has to be good. I've made beet hummus before, and that was fun. Perfect for a Christmas side too (for the color).
Yum.
Kristina, sweet potato pie is the best! We like it better than pumpkin pie. The purple was very fun. :)
Sandi, it was! :)
What a beautiful color! I've never seen purple sweet potatoes. I love how creative you are!
Daisy, I got these from Misfits (back when I used to order from them several years ago). They were a good price and I wanted to see if I could use them to make slips. It's been a pleasant surprise that they have done so well!
My wife experiments with her cooking all the time which is why she is always hard pressed to give up a recipe when asked. She often can't remember which version to write down.
I on the other hand, don't have that in me for some reason. I find a recipe I like and stick to it. Only if I am part way through and realize that I'm short of something, am I tempted to experiment.
Well, that’s funny 🤣 now you have you breakfast lined up for St. Patrick’s day!
- Katie C.
Food chemistry is always fun to play with.
Ed, I do the same as your wife! I can't tell you how many times I've puzzled over where to re-find a recipe months later.
Katie, I know! Perfect!
Nina, as much fun as natural dyeing. :)
Those both look delicious, Leigh!
I grown a few purple sweet potatoes. This year's lot was mostly the white fleshed variety.
TB, do you raise your own slips or buy them? I really like the orange Vardamans but have a hard time getting them to sprout. I've never tried the white ones, but now I'm intrigued.
Nice! Here at Walnetto Farm we are all about purple! I have been serving purple sweet potatoes for years. One of my new lady friends I met at the end of the first year I lived here became a fun friend who loves purple. Miss. Barbara even drives a purple Jeep! She teaches the grammar school age children's Sunday school and is perfect for the position as there is never a dull moment with Miss. Barbara at the lessons with fun crafts to bring the lessons to life.
Imagine my delight when I found Burgundy Broccoli at the local nursery on the other side of the mountain near my chiropractor's office. It is a sweet (pun intended) little Brassica with a twist. It is purple, has a shorter time to mature and has a lovely sweetness and I eat stems and all. When it is cooked in a gentle steam the small amount of water turns bright deep green and the flowers lose any hint of burgundy.
Which leads to another potential use for our little purple treat. How about a fiber dye day for Burgundy broccoli cooking water? Take that Indigo!!
Goatldi, I love that! Will definitely look for Burgundy Broccoli seed. One year I grew Cosmic Purple Carrots, which were really pretty. Only the skin was purple, the rest of the carrot was orange, which made for some really attractive carrot coins.
Definitely do that dye day! Those kinds of experiments are always fun. :)
Leigh, I actually grew my original ones from slips but for the past three years have been subsisting on volunteers (e.g., ones I missed from the previous year). As a result, the variety has shrunk somewhat - but thy are free, which is nice.
TB, lucky you! I've never had volunteer sweet potatoes, although I'm sure I've missed quite a few when digging them up. I love volunteer anything. They seem to do better and like you say, they're free!
Interesting how truly purple the sweet potatoes are. I've had Cherokee purple tomatoes which are more the color of a bad bruise - but if you can look past that pretty tasty.
Amanda, I know! I've never tried purple tomatoes (I should!) but I've grown some purple Chinese broccoli that turned green when cooked. And I've grown Cosmic Purple carrots, which only have a purple skin. These purple sweet potatoes are really neat.
Absolutely incredible! I love Sweet Potato Pie! Love the green pancakes too! We have never tried growing sweet potatoes here, but they were a permanent bed in Florida. I may need to give a test grow this summer! Great post, Leigh!
Wyomingheart, they grow really well for us, but our winters are too cold for them survive as perennials. I know they produce beset with a long growing season. I just find it odd that they take so long to sprout in the spring.
Yum.
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