Cooking with roots - Prepare Sweet Potato Salad

Sweet potatoes can do more than just stand in as a side dish to a holiday menu. Discover how to use sweet potatoes in a creative salads. 

Long regarded as a crop for southeners can sweet potatoes can be grown in any location that receives at least four months warm, sunny weather. Sweet potatoes are a relative of morning glory and decorative sweet potato wine. Some gardeners even grow sweet potatoes as an annual ground cover. 

But rather than banish their exclusive use for gardening purposes, sweet potatoes are common ingredients in many recipes, especially around holidays. They are a good source of vitamin A and contains some vitamin C. Sweet potatoes vary in color from light yellow to deep orange. 

People often confuse yams and sweet potatoes, but there is one prominent characteristic that sets them apart. A yam is a totally different plant species are grown only in the tropics. Its underground tubers are larger than sweet potatoes and yams tend to contain much more starch than sweet potatoes. 

Rather than wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas to enjoy sweet potatoes, home cooks can use these tubers in a creative alternative to traditional white-potato salad. In the recipe below replacement we know white potatoes with sweet potatoes to make a salad that is somewhat unusual, but delicious. 

Recipe 

Sweet Potato Salad 

Makes 4-6 servings 

Ingredients:

    * 5 cups water 

    * 1 1 / 2 pounds sweet potatoes 

    * 2 medium stalks (about 1 cup) celery, thinly sliced 

    * 1 small white onion, thinly sliced 

    * 1 medium navel orange, peeled and sectioned 

    * 1 cup homemade or commercially prepared mayonnaise 

    * 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice 

    * 1 teaspoon dry yellow mustard powder 

    * 1 teaspoon freshly grated orange peel 

    * 1 / 2 teaspoon coarse salt 

    * 1 / 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper 

    * 1 / 2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger 

    * Lettuce leaves for serving 

Directions:

   1st In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil over medium-high heat. When water comes to boil, add potatoes. Bring the water back to a boil, reduce heat. Cover the pot and simmer the potatoes until they are tender when pierced with tip of a knife, about 35-40 minutes. 

   2nd Drain potatoes and set aside until cool enough to handle. Slip off skins from potatoes. Cut potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes. Transfer cubed potatoes in a large bowl. Add celery, onion and orange sections. In a separate medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, orange juice, mustard powder, orange peel, salt, pepper and ginger. Combine the wet ingredients with the vegetables and stir to combine the dressing with vegetables. Chilled potato salad at least 2 hours before serving. 

   3rd To serve, line a large salad bowl with lettuce leaves. Mound potato salad in bowl and serve.