Last Updated on June 11, 2022 by
Here, we will discuss a popular question Do You Peel Sweet Potatoes? Cooking sweet potatoes is all about savoring their luscious orange flesh. Most home cooks believe that you must peel a sweet potato’s skin before cooking it. Some chefs, on the other hand, are uninterested in doing so. If you’re wondering whether peeling sweet potatoes is a must-do or a waste of time, check out the research we’ve assembled below.
Sweet potatoes can be peeled before and after cooking, although most people prefer peeling before cooking. The smoother texture of peeled potatoes is preferred by the majority of people, especially in sweet recipes like sweet potato pie. If you want to keep the skins on your sweet potatoes, make sure you scrub and wash them thoroughly before cooking.
Is It Necessary to Peel Sweet Potatoes?
It’s not unclean to cook sweet potatoes with the skin on as long as you wash them and scrub them well. The Idaho Potato Blog claims that eating potato skin can help us get more “roughage” in our diet.
So, if the skin of a sweet potato is so good for us, why do we take it off? The texture of sweet potato skin is one of the main reasons why many cooks dislike it. Even though the skin appears to be paper-thin, it will give your meal a tough touch. While there’s nothing wrong with eating sweet potato skin, its coarse contribution isn’t appreciated by everyone.
This is especially true if you’re cooking a smooth-textured dish. It’s unheard of, for example, to bake a sweet potato pie without first peeling the potatoes. If you’re making fries, roasts, or baked potatoes, unpeeled sweet potatoes are usually the best option. Shredded skin-on sweet potatoes can also be used to make hash browns or latkes.
Is It Possible To Peel Sweet Potatoes Quickly?
On a wooden board, pieces of sweet potato are isolated. Peeling a sweet potato, the conventional approach is as follows:
- In cold water, scrub and wash your sweet potato.
- Cut a sweet potato in half and remove both ends.
- Glide a peeler from the root to the tip until all of the skin has been removed.
- Toss the potato skin into the trash or put it through the garbage disposal.
To be honest, there’s no secret technique for peeling potatoes faster than other cooks. Serrated peelers, on the other hand, are said to operate better than regular peelers by some cooks. Whether you choose a serrated or smooth potato peeler, be sure it has a lot of positive feedback from the cooking community.
Is It Possible To Peel Sweet Potatoes Without Using A Peeler?
Sweet potatoes can be peeled without a peeler, but they must first be cooked. The easiest method for peeling potatoes without a peeler is as follows:
- Sweet potatoes should be washed, scrubbed, and dried.
- Place a medium saucepan of water over high heat on the stovetop.
- Gently score the center of your sweet potatoes with a sharp knife.
- Bring the potatoes to a boil in a pot of boiling water.
- Transfer your potatoes to a bowl of ice water with tongs after a few minutes in boiling water.
- Allow five minutes for the potatoes to cool.
- Pull out your potatoes and use your hands to remove the peel.
Also, there are electric peeling machines. So, if you don’t mind paying for added convenience, these electric peelers could be a good investment. Unfortunately, peeling raw sweet potatoes without a peeler is impossible. While you could use a knife, this is a risky procedure that wastes a lot of sweet potatoes. If you want to peel raw sweet potatoes, you should add a good peeler to your kitchen tools.
How Do You Peel Sweet Potatoes After They’ve Been Cooked?
Even if you’ve just boiled a batch of sweet potatoes with the skin on, you can still remove the outer coating. Follow this simple approach to swiftly take the skin off whole, boiled sweet potatoes once they have cooled a bit.
- Cut the sweet potato in half and remove both ends.
- Make a tiny slit down one of the potatoes’ sides.
- With your fingers, peel off one end of the skin.
- Continue peeling off the skin until you get an orange sweet potato.
If you’re having difficulties with this procedure, consider dipping your roasted sweet potato in an ice bath before attempting to peel the skin off. A few seconds in icy water can help you acquire a better grip on this spud’s skin.
Other Instructions To Follow When Peeling Potatoes
Wash and dry your potatoes in cool water.
Peeler
With your non-dominant hand holding the potato and your dominant hand holding the peeler, swipe the peeler against the potato away from your body. Rotate the potato until it has been skinned completely.
Paring Knife
Hold the potato in your non-dominant hand and the paring knife in your other hand, just as you would with a peeler. Slide the knife along the potato slightly beneath the skin, using your thumb as a guide. Work your way around the potato until you’ve skinned it completely.
Boiling To Peel
Just enough to get through the skin around the rinsed potatoes, score them. Then put them in a pot of boiling water and cook them until they’re cooked.
Drain them and rinse them with cold water before allowing them to cool. Squeeze the ends of the potatoes once they’ve cooled enough to handle, and the peels should come right off.
Can Sweet Potatoes Be Peeled the Day Before?
Peeling sweet potatoes the day before you need to cook them saves you hours of prep time on the day of cooking and a few extra hours of sleep. Peel the potatoes and keep them in airtight containers in the fridge overnight, covered in water.
If you’re preparing sweet potatoes the day before, make sure they’re submerged in cold water and that the water covers the entire potato. Lightly stir the contents to make sure that the potatoes are completely covered in water and that no part of them is exposed to air.
This method of storing sweet potatoes in the refrigerator can keep them fresh for 3 to 4 days. Make sure your refrigerator is set to a cool 40 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also put some ice cubes in the water to keep the sweet potatoes as cool as possible.
How Long Can You Keep Sweet Potatoes After Peeling?
After they’ve been peeled, sweet potatoes will immediately turn brown. Sweet potatoes are inherently starchy veggies, which accounts for the color shift. When starch comes into contact with air, it oxidizes and turns your sweet potato gray, brown, or even black.
Sweet potatoes that have become brown or gray due to oxidation are still edible. But, let’s face it, who wants to eat mashed brown sweet potatoes? It does appear to be unappealing. If you want to use the chopped sweet potatoes within a few hours of peeling, place them in a dish of water to keep them from drying out and oxidizing.
Is It Possible To Peel Sweet Potatoes Before Boiling Them?
There is no correct or incorrect answer in this circumstance. You have the option of peeling a sweet potato before cooking it. However, there is a minor variance in the final output. Boiling a sweet potato with the skin on makes it easier to peel, keeps more nutrients, and has a higher beta-carotene content. Boiling sweet potatoes with their skins on preserves the sweetness of the potatoes rather than losing it to the water.
Is It Possible To Peel Sweet Potatoes Before Baking Them?
You can peel your sweet potatoes before roasting them, but it isn’t required. Peeled sweet potatoes have a smoother consistency, which some people like.
It’s not a culinary disaster if you leave the skin on your sweet potatoes unless you’re cooking sweets where the skin is preferred for a smoother texture.
Sweet potato skins are high in vitamins and antioxidants and can be consumed raw or cooked. If you’re going to leave the skin on your sweet potato, make sure you clean and scrub it thoroughly to eliminate any dirt, pollutants, or bacteria.
How to Keep Peeled Potatoes Fresh
It’s as simple as 1-2-3 to store peeled potatoes overnight. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the potatoes. Although it’s better to leave them whole, you can cube or dice them if you prefer, just don’t slice them too thinly.
Submerge the potatoes in a dish of cool water, then cover with plastic wrap. At least one night in the refrigerator. When you’re ready, to begin with, the potatoes, drain them thoroughly in a strainer and get to work.
Conclusion On Do You Peel Sweet Potatoes?
Whether to peel or not to peel your potatoes is entirely up to you. Sweet potato skin is not poisonous, despite what you may have heard from various people. Some people claim that sweet potatoes that haven’t been peeled are delicious. While leaving the skin on your sweet potatoes will vary the texture, no cooking law requires you to peel each one.
