🍠 Potassium in Sweet Potato Calculator
Calculate potassium content by preparation type, serving size, and number of servings
| Preparation | Serving | Potassium | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baked with Skin | 114g (1 medium) | 541mg | 103 |
| Baked without Skin | 114g (1 medium) | 492mg | 99 |
| Boiled | 150g (1 cup cubed) | 475mg | 132 |
| Mashed | 328g (1 cup) | 754mg | 249 |
| Steamed | 150g | 510mg | 119 |
| Raw | 130g (1 medium) | 438mg | 103 |
| Sweet Potato Fries | 85g (1 serving) | 390mg | 160 |
| Canned | 128g (1/2 cup) | 378mg | 106 |
| Food | Potassium | Calories | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet Potato (baked, 114g) | 541mg | 103 | Rich in vitamin A |
| Banana (1 medium, 118g) | 422mg | 105 | Popular potassium source |
| Russet Potato (baked, 173g) | 952mg | 168 | Highest among tubers |
| Spinach (cooked, 1 cup) | 839mg | 41 | Low calorie, high potassium |
| Avocado (1 whole, 200g) | 975mg | 322 | Also rich in healthy fats |
| Butternut Squash (1 cup) | 582mg | 82 | Similar root vegetable |
Sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory family, which makes them entirely different from regular potatoes. Regular potatoes are part of the nightshade family just like tomatoes. Although they share the name, those two species differ in nutrition quite a lot.
Sweet potatoes store much more sugar but regular ones have more proteins and potassium.
How to Choose and Cook Sweet Potatoes
One sees sweet potatoes commonly as healthier because of their low sugar index compared to white potatoes. But the preparation plays a big role. Almost all methods, except boiling and roasting, can riase the sugar index of sweet potatoes a lot.
So the way of cooking truly changes everything.
At the store, when you choose sweet potatoes, look for ones that are firm, heavy for their size, hard and smooth. Avoid those with dark marks, wrinkled skin, wounds or soft spots, because that shows decay. If a sweet potato has sprouted, it still works for eating after removing the sprouts.
Red Garnet and Jewel work well four roasting. White sweet potatoes are a bit less sweet than the orange ones and have a creamy, more starchy texture, that works well for baking.
While baking, sweet potatoes commonly become juicy, and those juices caramelize, which makes cleaning harder. Wrapping them in aluminum foil helps with that. Raw sweet potato surprisingly is hard, but after cooking it becomes soft and wet.
Poking the skin before baking allows steam to escape, so it does not build pressure and pop the skin. Even so thatsticky interior truly tastes good.
The time to bake varies by the size. Little sweet potatoes cook more quickly than big ones. Recipes usually say up to one hour at around 400 to 425 degrees for a medium potato.
After baking, leave them a bit to cool, cut the top skin and add butter, that melts because of the leftover heat. Salt and pepper.
Many ways exist to enjoy them. Cut in cubes and roasted with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and flakes of red pepper makes one great option. Fries from sweet potatoes with only olive oil and sea salt also work well.
Mashing them like white potatoes with butter, salt, pepper, cinnamon and maybe a bit of honey mixes sweet and savory taste. One can cut them in thin rounds and bake at low temperature to have tasty chips.
Purple sweet potatoes are another fun option. They work for use in bread, which gives the bread a nice color. Adding more potatoes in the mix helps the purple truly show.
Sweet potatoes also work well in soups, mixed with lentils and carrots. Tossing warm sweet potatoes with lime, red onion, chili and coriander in a sauce lets them absorb the flavors well.
Fully scrub the surface before cooking matters to remove all dirt. Roasting is a good option instead of boiling, when one wants to avoid extra fat.
