citybaby

a blog about making baby food

little sweet potato

Oh how I wish that I liked sweet potato (or yams).  Our little sweet potato likes them chopped and mixed with plain Greek yogurt.  Yams and sweet potatoes are ever-so-easy to make but if you bake them, they do take time.  These tubers are fantastic for all of us as they are a nutritional super-foods packed with antioxidants such as beta-carotene (which also converts to vitamin A) and vitamin C, along with vitamin B6, dietary fiber, potassium, manganese, copper and even iron.

Like dumpling squash, sweet potatoes can feed the whole family.  Buy what you plan to feed yourself plus one or two more yams for your infant or toddler.  Prepare them all at once with minimal extra effort and you will have enough for several baby meals. I have tried several baking methods but prefer this one over all others based upon the ease of removing the potato skin.  Kudos and thanks to Kristin Corlett for her original post on The Goat.

Equipment:
  • Baking sheet
  • Sharp knife a fork and a spoon
  • Aluminum foil
  • Food processor
  • Silicone ice trays – I use silicone because the food is easier to pop out, but you can use an ice tray made of any material
  • 4 oz. small single-serving containers. Good for storing fresh food or frozen food that you want to take with you.  Ice trays aren’t practical for to-go situations.

Ingredients:

Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 450F.
  2. Put an aluminum lined baking sheet on the lowest rack.  This will catch the drippings.
  3. Scrub yams enthusiastically as you will be leaving their jackets on. Dry thoroughly.
  4. Do not pierce jackets!
  5. Place the potato(es) directly on the top rack.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes.
  7. Turn oven temp to 350F.  
  8. Bake another 60 minutes.
  9. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
  10. The potato jacket should peel away from the meat very easily as there should be a pocket of air between the meat and the jacket.  Cut the peeled potato in half and chop, mash or purée.  

For a purée:
  1. Drop cooked yams (no skins) into the large bowl of your food processor and purée with the large metal blade.  To achieve a true purée, you will need to add a small amount of water (or stock). Add the water slowly as the blade is spinning.  Be sure not to over-fill the food processor bowl as it will make it difficult to achieve a fully puréed result.
  2. Reserve a few servings for the week and spoon the rest of the purée into ice trays, cover with freezer-wrap and freeze. 

 

 


Our daughter started eating ½ a defrosted purée cube at a time, then progressed to one full cube.  When she moved to two cubes, I started making and freezing more than one vegetable at a time so that she would have variety at each meal. I do not use a microwave to defrost frozen foods.  I simply take a cube or single-serving size of my frozen item out of the freezer the night before and let the cube(s) defrost gradually in the refrigerator. 

If you are an on-the-go type of person or send your child to day-care, you’ll want to have some meals saved in single-serving containers so that they are easily packed up.  The ice trays are handy, but not so practical for when you are out and about or need to pack a set of meals for day-care!  I also advocate not freezing a small batch and storing the food you plan to serve your child for that week in single-serve containers. That way baby will get super-fresh foods (that have never been frozen) and as a side benefit, you can easily monitor the portions served during mealtime. 


For a mash:

 

  1. Mash with a fork or potato masher if you have one.
  2. Serve plain or add a little grated ginger or cinnamon, or mix in some apple sauce or chopped wilted spinach.
  3. Reserve a few servings for the week and spoon the rest into ice trays or single-serve containers, and freeze for later.

For yourself:

 

  1. Do not remove the jackets.  Split the potato down the middle, sprinkle with salt, butter and serve. One potato is more than sufficient as a healthy side for an adult.

Sweet Potato Redux
We don't own a microwave, but if you do and want to simplify preparing sweet potatoes even further and cut the cook time dramatically, follow these tips from a citydaddy I know in Texas.


"You cannot beat the simplicity of a sweet potato. Wrap one in a wet paper towel, pop it in the microwave for 3-5 minutes, let it cool, then cut it in half. Scoop out and purée, mash or cut into chunks. Great snack! To turn this into a more substantial meal, we steam and puréed a potato, add ground beef and carrots (or other veggies).  It was a snap and she gobbled it up."


Yam it up knowing that I'm a little jealous of all of you sweet potatophiles out there. You're eating well!