Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year and as the weather gets cooler, warm and comforting foods are sounding more and more appealing!
According to Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine warm, cooked foods improve digestion, raise your body’s metabolic rate, increase circulation, and raise your body temperature to keep you warm. Seasonal produce like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and winter squash paired with warming spices like cinnamon and ginger are a perfect combination. Hmm…pumpkin pie anyone?? We’ll get to that next week….
I’m a big fan of sweet potatoes and yams and lately I’ve been on a purple sweet potato kick. Have you ever tried them? They’re sweet and moist and purple all the way through. To prepare them (or any yams or sweet potatoes) scrub them with a vegetable brush, coat them with coconut or olive oil, pierce them a few times with a knife and lay them on a baking sheet (so they don’t drip all that yummy sweet syrup in your oven). Bake them at 400 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes until they’re nice and soft. Be sure to eat the nutrient dense crispy skins! I like to bake a few at a time and eat them left over later in the week. Just slice them into bite sized pieces and heat them in a pan in coconut oil…yum!
They’re loaded with antioxidants, fiber, beta carotene, B vitamins, vitamin C, and folate. Although they are lower on the glycemic index than regular potatoes, they are starchy and contain a fair amount of natural sugar so it’s best to eat a smaller portion.
I buy my purple sweet potatoes at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage where all the produce is organic. However, yams and sweet potatoes are on the Environmental Working Group’s Clean Fifteen list so they’re very low in pesticides and it’s ok to eat them conventionally grown.
Enjoy!
