Nutrition Bite of the Week

With the holidays fast approaching, Thanksgiving is just next week, nutrition is always something that is on everyone's mind.  I thought I would provide one of my favorite recipes that I use in order to make the holidays a little less guilt-ridden nutritionally speaking if you so choose!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes
If you want to get a little more bang for your buck nutritionally, sweet potatoes are a great alternative to regular potatoes during Thanksgiving dinner.

Per serving, sweet potatoes completely knock-out regular white potatoes nutritionally, and in my humble opinion, in flavor as well.  Let's look at the break down:

Photo and data are courtesy of the Cleveland Clinic and taken from: Cleveland Clinic website.

As you can see, per serving, sweet potatoes pack a much more nutritional punch, over 1000 times the Vitamin A, more Vitamin C, and actually has Calcium, Magnesium, and Manganese.

First, get a large pot of water and bring it to a boil, I add just a pinch of Sicilian Sea Salt to it. Next, while the water is heating, I take a 10lb bag of sweet potatoes and cut them up (you can peel them if you wish, I like the peels in it).  Once cut up into about 1/2-1 inch sizes, place them into the boiling water. I let them boil for approximately 20-30 minutes, depending on how many sweet potatoes you put in the pot.

After the potatoes have boiled to a nice soft point, pick one out and see if a simple butter knife can easily cut through a piece (they're soft enough), you can then take the pot off the stove and strain the water from the sweet potatoes. Shortly after the water has strained off, I place the sweet potatoes in a large bowl.  I then add 1/4 cup grass-fed butter (I use Kerrygold Irish Butter, unsalted), cut up into small pieces to melt quickly and evenly.  I also add 1/2 - 3/4 cup of almond milk (I use Almond Breeze Vanilla Unsweetened Almond Milk, 30 cals per serving). This adds a nice amount of vanilla to the sweet potatoes, and compliments the sweetness of the potatoes.  When all these are added in, I use a hand held mixer to blend the sweet potatoes into a very creamy and smooth mixture.  Voila! You now have a great recipe to add a boat load of nutrition to your holiday or everyday dinners!

-Matthew Knauf