Sweet Potato Love

I am in love with sweet potatoes! At the age of 26, I was introduced to them at a hip restaurant, at the very fashionable Rodeo Drive in LA - sweet potato fries!  To this day, I have no memory of the rest of the meal, but I remember distinctly the chunky, golden brown, mildly salted, amazingly delicious sweet potato fries. I am a changed woman ever since. Now, I can never ignore them at the supermarket isle or the farmer's market and I have to try them at a restaurant, if the menu mentions it. I am officially hooked!

Today I wanted to share one of my all time favourite sweet potato recipes (I have to thank my friend Kiiran for this, she makes it for me whenever I visit her), which is actually my version of the Gujrati classic, "Undhiyo". So, the traditional version is very rich in oil but all the same has many other vegetables. This is a lighter version with the focus on the queen of starch!

Many of us look at all starchy vegetables with circumspect, mostly because food starches are converted into simple sugars by our digestive tracts. This also results in a spike in the blood sugar levels . Sweet potatoes on the other hand, actually improve blood sugar regulation, even in type 2 diabetes sufferers.

Sweet potatoes are very rich in vitamin A and while passing through our digestive tract, even reduce the risk posed by heavy metals and oxygen radicals. The antioxidants in it also provide protection against inflammation related health problems.

Here it goes,

Ingredients

2 large sweet potatoes peeled and diced

1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)

10 cloves of garlic

1 inch piece of ginger

1 cup chopped cilantro

2 green chillies chopped

2 tbsp desiccated coconut

2 tsp carom seeds or ajwain

1 tsp sugar 

salt to taste

1 tbsp coconut oil (olive oil is fine too)

10 pieces bakerwadi (This is a Maharashtrian fried snack, Chitlebandhu is a good brand. It is optional in this recipe. But it is a little fun element in the recipe, a bite of a surprise)

Process

1.Put the diced sweet potatoes in a glass bowl, add a little water and microwave it for 10 mins on high or parboil it.

2. Meanwhile, grind the peas, chillies, garlic, coconut and ginger to make a coarse paste.

3. In a pan, heat the oil and add the ajwain, let it splutter, then add the sweet potatoes. When they are almost done, add the paste, bakerwadi, a bit of water and mix everything.

4. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the salt and sugar and the cilantro.

5. Stir everything together and take it off the heat.

6. Enjoy with rotis (indian flat bread).