These vegetables are probably the most vilified item in your kitchen. Do they deserve it?
Last year Drew and I started to make major changes to our lifestyle by joining a diet plan in order to lose weight and have more energy. The plan included buying their prepackaged foods and then changing to home prepared foods for some of your meals until you were only using home prepared foods. In theory your food choices were better because your better eating habits had been ingrained. We both did great. In fact we still retain most of that knowledge and weight loss. The foods we could eat as we weaned ourselves off of their foods were basically lean proteins and low carbs. Lots of veggies and a limited amount of fruits (higher in natural sugars). The diet cut calories that your body was used to receiving. We started to exercise more and therefore we stayed in a state of burning more than we took in. Hence the weight loss.
We were not supposed to eat potatoes – even sweet potatoes. This broke my heart. I knew potatoes were starchy but I always thought they were high in fiber. I thought sweet potatoes were high in vitamin C and also high in fiber. As someone who has IBS I need high fiber foods. I don’t want to get fiber from synthetic sources like powder I add to water.
When I started writing the book I knew I wanted to include potatoes – they are easily available, reasonably priced, will last a long time, can be made in many ways that most novice cooks can complete successfully, and can compliment multiple cuisines. I included ideas for a DIY baked potato bar. This is a great way to feed a crowd. My friend Dawn recently said (on Facebook when I asked people what they thought about potatoes): “At a business function there was a baked potato bar and in addition to all the usual toppings it had crème fresh and caviar. Amazingly good. It was so good that I didn’t get to the food.”
My 20 year daughter Jenyka (who lives in the USVI) frequently buys a 5 lb bag of potatoes and bakes a few at a time. She will add taco meat, refried beans, cheese and sour cream. My daughter Jackie (22) makes a delicious and creamy boiled potato soup with bacon and green onions. She also makes a kick ass mashed potato for the holidays!
I made red potatoes the other night and we could eat this every day!
In my seriously unscientific polling about potatoes several themes were prevalent:
- buy from local farms or farmers markets because traditional large farms use pesticides and potatoes absorb more than other veggies
- simple can be delicious – many people mentioned cutting them up to bite size pieces, putting them in a zipper bag or large bowl and coating them generously in a good fat (oil, butter or ghee) and herbs. One person used a package of Lipton onion soup mix as well! After mixing lay them on an oiled cookie sheet and roast them in the oven until a knife easily pierces them.
- some people boiled them first and then put them on cookie sheets to crisp them. Smush them flat and sprinkle with herbs.
- people love (baked or boiled) potatoes with salt (it’s actually one of the foods that NY is known for).
- very popular to make a twice baked potato – I have never made these but I certainly love to eat them!
- rosemary is overwhelmingly the best herb to use with the spuds
- one friend said this : “I read that if you chill cooked potatoes before (possibly reheating and) eating them, then the starch is converted to resistant starch which is supposed to be easier on the blood sugar.” Worth trying!
- another friend said this: “Pairing potatoes with a fiber (and leaving skins on potatoes) and a protein will help balance the blood sugar affect potatoes might have. Potatoes are a whole food, nothing to be afraid of
We like making mashed potatoes with a couple of sweet potatoes thrown in. They come out a gorgeous color! “ - So many ways to eat potatoes were mentioned – hash browns, fried potatoes with eggs for breakfast, scalloped potatoes, mashed with garlic (love these), scalloped potatoes with cheese, french fries (sweet potato fries!), roasted with other vegetables (especially other “cellar” veggies like carrots, squashes, or Brussel sprouts), and potato salad.
I started to do some research – how bad are potatoes? Obviously it’s how they are cooked and what they are paired with. But if you just take a store bought Yukon and roast it in the oven whole, cut it open and eat it with no toppings – what are you looking at as far as nutrients??
I found a resource to answer that question!
“Potatoes are more energy-packed than any other popular vegetable. Potatoes are also fat-free, gluten-free, plant-based, affordable, and a quality carbohydrate. They are cholesterol-free and sodium-free, with only 110 calories per 5.3oz serving. “
And:
- The majority of a potatoes valuable potassium and vitamin C is found in the flesh (not the skin like we were always told)
- Fresh, frozen, and dehydrated potatoes are all optimal vegetable choices that contain nutrients
- Potatoes have 1.1 mg of iron per serving, which is 6% of the daily value and more than half the amount in a 3-ounce beef patty
- Potatoes have 620 mg of potassium per serving, which is 15% of the daily value and more than a medium-sized banana
Nutrient breakdown:
1 Medium-Sized Skin-On White Potato (148g):
- 110 Calories
- 1 Gram of Sugar
- 3 Grams of Protein
- 45% Daily Value of Vitamin C
- 26 Grams of Carbohydrates
- 620mg of Potassium
- 2 Grams of Fiber
1 Medium-Sized Skin-On Sweet Potato (130g)
- 100 Calories
- 7 Gram of Sugar (YOWZERS! Luckily I never add anything to my baked sweet potatoes BUT KEEP THIS IN MIND if you plan on it!)
- 2 Grams of Protein
- 120% Daily Value of Vitamin A
- 30% Daily Value of Vitamin C
- 23 Grams of Carbohydrates
- 440mg of Potassium
- 4 Grams of Fiber
If you are looking to learn more (they also discuss potato chips [which are my Kryptonite] and I found that pretty interesting!) I suggest checking out their site. Lots of potato recipes!
