A Filling Snack or Side: Delicious Baked Sweet Potato

Fall brings an abundance of veggies, root crops, and fruits. This is the perfect time to cook vegetable stews and make salad. Oh, how I miss my previous garden! Since we had to move to a new home, I had to choose which plants I can replant. I had eggplants, tomatoes, chilis, and a variety of herbs. So now, I’m just waiting for them to grow and bear fruit. One of my favorite crops is sweet potato, which is a very nutritious root crop. Just be careful not to eat too much or you’ll be passing gas LOL! What to do with it? I decided to make baked sweet potato with feta cheese and parsley with a recipe that I found online.

Benefits of Baked Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes have many nutritious benefits. If it’s baked, it means that it retains most of the flavor as opposed to mixing it with dishes, frying, or boiling it. Sweet potatoes are rich in antioxidants that help prevent cancer, heart problems, and aging.

Fiber is also another component in sweet potatoes which are beneficial in gut health. Since sweet potatoes contain both soluble and insoluble fiber, they stay in your digestive tract and promote a healthy gut. In addition, soluble fiber helps absorb water in your stool and softens it. Therefore, if you have constipation problems, it is best to eat sweet potato every day.

Sweet potatoes are also rich in beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is converted to Vitamin A which helps support healthy vision. Purple sweet potatoes are the best source of vitamin A and beta-carotene.

Anthocyanins are also contained in sweet potatoes. These help prevent inflammation in the brain and prevents free radical damage. Studies show that anthocyanins help improve memory and learning. Thus, eating sweet potatoes can help reduce mental decline and dementia.

Last but not the least, sweet potatoes are perfect for the immune system since it is rich in Vitamin A. Also, a healthy gut means a healthy body as your body is able to absorb the needed nutrients and expel the waste properly.

Adding Sweet Potato to Your Diet

Add sweet potatoes to your diet naturally. A baked sweet potato dish is just one way you can eat them. You can follow this recipe or just top them with cheese or sour cream. You can also substitute potatoes and make mashed sweet potatoes. Other ways you can eat them are:

• sweet potato chips — baked or fried
• sweet potato fries
• boiled and dipped in sugar or honey
• sweet potato hashbrowns
• sweet potato omelet

What about you? What dishes can you make with sweet potatoes?

Don’t forget to share this Baked Sweet Potato with Feta Cheese and Parsley! 

Looking for healthy snacks? Try this healthy Chocolate Revel Bars recipe!

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5 from 1 vote

Baked Sweet Potato

This baked sweet potato recipe is nutritious and delicious as well. You can eat it as a snack especially if you're on a diet, or serve it as a side dish. You can also eat it by itself for a light lunch or dinner.

Course Salad, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword baked sweet potato, healthy recipes, vegetable dish

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 4 sweet potatoes medium-sized
• 200 grams feta cheese
• 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley
• olives optional
• sundried tomatoes optional

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Wash the sweet potatoes well and pierce all around with a fork.
• Place your baking rack over the baking sheet and arrange the sweet potatoes on it.
• Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until you can easily pierce it with a fork.
• While waiting for the sweet potatoes to bake, prepare the filling. Mix the feta cheese with the parsley. You can also add sun-dried tomatoes and olives to it.
• When the sweet potatoes are cooked, slice them into half, lengthwise.
• You can mash the flesh lightly with a fork. Top the sweet potatoes with the feta cheese filling and serve.