Sweet perks of eating healthy

GOA: The potato is, without doubt, one of the world’s most popular and loved vegetable. But in these days of ‘conscious eating’, another potato is slowly but steadily taking over the mantle of ‘favourite’; the sweet potato.
While most of us usually tuck into piping hot, steamed, sweet potatoes as a tea-time snack, the interesting feature of the tuber is that is lends itself beautifully to cooking, be it sweet or savoury dishes, and is increasingly being opted for as the ‘healthier carb’.
But, do not be fooled by the word ‘sweet’. Sweet potatoes contain a whopping dose of beta-carotene, Vitamin C, potassium and other vital vitamins and minerals. In fact, the nutritional value of this tuber has been ranked as the highest among several other foods.
Goa boasts two varieties of sweet potatoes grown locally the brown-skinned, orange variety and the white-skinned variety that is also known as the ‘Goa Velha white’. Both are popular and widely available, especially during the winter season.
Food blogger Xanti Fernandes e Pinto of xantilicious.com says she finds sweet potatoes to be an excellent alternative to regular cooking potatoes in most dishes as they are a rich source of complex carbohydrates and Vitamin C. Some of her favourite sweet potato-based sweet dishes are bebinca and neureo. “The sweet potato neureo, or kongancheo neureo, is something I have been eating since I was a child at my Hindu neighbour’s home,” she says.
The procedure to make these, Pinto says, can get a bit tricky as the dough, due to its stickiness, needs to be handled between plastic sheets while rolling and folding. And like in most sweet potato-based dishes, the level of sweetness can be adjusted as desired by simply adding a bit of sugar.
Homemaker Nirmala Fernandes has fond childhood memories of a sweet dish she would be served at the convent whenever she visited her aunt. The dish consists of parboiled sweet potatoes that are then sliced or cubed, pan-fried with a dash of coconut oil and tossed in a pre-prepared filling of grated coconut and coconut jaggery (ghodd-chun).
“Apart from steamed, sweet potatoes, this version is also a family favourite,” she says.
Avid foodie and owner of the popular food blog, ‘Hungry? Hog?’, Sapna Sardesai says she indulges her family with many different sweet potato preparations. “Sweet potato kheer, made with sago and coconut milk, is quite a popular traditional dish and a favourite, too,” she says.
Another popular preparation, she says, is the puran poli, which is traditionally an Indian stuffed bread with a lentil filing. “A stuffing made using boiled and mashed sweet potatoes, a bit of sugarcane jaggery and grated coconut makes for a delicious alternative,” Sardessai explains.
Sweet indulges can hardly get better than this.