Purple Sweet Potato: Benefits, Effects, Nutritional Value, and Complete Recipe Collection

Is purple sweet potato a genetically modified food?

Purple sweet potato is not a genetically modified food. Genetic modification can also produce colored vegetables, but as far as the common purple sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and colored waxy corn we see, most belong to natural varieties or hybrid varieties. Purple sweet potatoes have existed in our country for a very long time; it is just that in recent years, our country successively introduced two main purple sweet potato varieties from Japan and crossed them with domestic varieties, cultivating a series of purple sweet potato varieties, and none of these purple sweet potatoes are genetically modified.

Nutritional Value of Purple Sweet Potato

1. Purple sweet potato is rich in selenium and anthocyanins. Anthocyanins have preventive and therapeutic effects on more than 100 diseases and are hailed as the seventh essential nutrient after water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals.

2. Purple sweet potato contains abundant protein, 18 kinds of amino acids that are easily digested and absorbed by the human body, 8 kinds of vitamins such as vitamin C, B, and A, and more than 10 kinds of natural mineral elements such as phosphorus and iron, among which iron and selenium are abundant.

Benefits and Effects of Purple Sweet Potato

[Nature and Flavor] Sweet in flavor, slightly warm in nature, non-toxic.

[Meridian Tropism] Heart, liver, spleen, kidney.

[Effects] Nourishes the complexion and delays aging, strengthens tendons and bones, strengthens the spleen and stomach, boosts qi and promotes fluid production, harmonizes the hundred vessels, moves through the blood pathways, and promotes the replacement of the old with the new.

1. Cancer prevention and anti-cancer: Purple sweet potato is rich in selenium and iron, which are essential elements for the human body to resist fatigue, resist aging, and nourish the blood. Selenium in particular is called the “king of anti-cancer”; it is easily absorbed by the human body and can remain in the blood serum, repair cardiac muscle, enhance the body's immunity, scavenge free radicals in the body, inhibit the synthesis of DNA in cancer cells and the division and growth of cancer cells, and prevent the occurrence of cancers such as gastric cancer and liver cancer.

2. Promotes gastrointestinal peristalsis: Purple sweet potato is rich in cellulose, which can increase stool volume, promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, clear away mucus, gas, and putrefactive matter retained in the intestinal cavity, expel toxic substances and carcinogenic substances in the stool, keep bowel movements smooth, improve the digestive tract environment, and prevent the occurrence of gastrointestinal diseases.

3. Helps with weight loss and body shaping: Eating purple sweet potato not only will not make you fat; on the contrary, it can help with weight loss, keep you fit, prevent sub-health, relieve constipation, and detoxify. Every 100 grams of fresh purple sweet potato contains only 0.2 grams of fat and produces 99 kilocalories of heat energy, roughly 1/3 that of rice. It is a very good low-fat, low-calorie food, and at the same time it can effectively prevent carbohydrates from turning into fat, which is beneficial for weight loss and body shaping.

4. Enhances immunity: Purple sweet potato contains a large amount of mucin, which can prevent the atrophy of connective tissue in the liver and kidneys, improve the body's immunity, and prevent the occurrence of collagen diseases. The minerals contained in purple sweet potato play a very important role in maintaining and regulating human body functions. The calcium and magnesium it contains can prevent osteoporosis.

Complete Recipe Collection for Purple Sweet Potato

1. Purple Sweet Potato Cakes

[Ingredients] Purple sweet potato, glutinous rice flour, flour, white sesame seeds, red bean paste.

[Method] ① Wash the purple sweet potato, slice it, and steam it until cooked. ② Use a spoon to mash the steamed purple sweet potato into purple sweet potato puree, add glutinous rice flour and flour, and knead into a dough. ③ Divide the mixed purple sweet potato dough into small portions, roll the red bean paste filling into balls for later use, then flatten the small dough portions and wrap in the red bean paste filling. After wrapping, press into round cakes. ④ Roll the round cakes in white sesame seeds. ⑤ Pour an appropriate amount of oil into a flat-bottomed pan; after the oil is slightly hot, add the prepared purple sweet potato cakes, turn to low heat and fry slowly. After frying for a short while, flip and continue frying, then flip again and fry until both sides are golden brown.

2. Purple Sweet Potato Mont Blanc

[Ingredients] 500 grams of purple sweet potato, 80 milliliters of light cream, 40 grams of butter, digestive biscuits.

[Method] ① Steam the sweet potato in advance, then begin making it. ② Melt the butter over water (place butter in one bowl and set it in another large bowl filled with hot water), crush the digestive biscuits, and mix the crushed digestive biscuits with the melted butter evenly. ③ Line a cake mold (a small round lunchbox was used) with plastic wrap, spread the mixed biscuit crumbs into it, and press flat. ④ Peel the steamed sweet potato and press it into sweet potato puree, and whip the light cream. ⑤ Mix the sweet potato puree and the whipped cream thoroughly until no white cream can be seen. ⑥ Add the mixed sweet potato puree to the mold that was just lined with digestive biscuits, filling it tightly and pressing flat. ⑦ Invert to unmold, and remove the plastic wrap.

3. Purple Sweet Potato Porridge

[Ingredients] Rice, purple sweet potato.

[Method] ① Wash the rice and soak it in water for more than half an hour. ② Wash and peel the purple sweet potato, and cut it into small pieces. ③ Put the purple sweet potato and rice into a clay pot, add enough water all at once; if more water is added later, it will affect the taste and thickness of the porridge. After it comes to a boil, turn to low heat. ④ Simmer over low heat until the purple sweet potato breaks down and the porridge is thick. Stir frequently during the process; porridge cooked in a clay pot easily sinks to the bottom and burns.

4. Purple Sweet Potato Rose Shaped Steamed Buns

[Ingredients] 250 grams of wheat flour, 200 grams of purple sweet potato, 2.5 grams of dry yeast, 15 grams of warm water.

[Method] ① Fully dissolve the yeast in warm water, pour it into the flour, then pour in the cooked and cooled purple sweet potato puree, and knead the dough by hand until it reaches the three-clean state (clean dough, clean hands, clean bowl). ② Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a wet cloth, and let it rise naturally in a warm place for about 1-2 hours. It is now late spring and early summer, and the temperature is about 25 degrees; generally, 2 hours at room temperature is enough for fermentation. ③ Take out the dough that has risen to 1.5 times its size, sprinkle dry flour on the work surface, and knead the dough to release the gas. ④ First divide the dough into medium dough portions of about 80 grams each, then take one 80-gram dough portion and roll it by hand into a strip of about 10 centimeters, cut it into 6 small pieces, with one small piece cut slightly smaller and rolled into an olive shape to make the flower center. ⑤ Flatten the remaining 5 small pieces and roll them into round sheets about 0.3 centimeters thick and 10 centimeters in diameter. It is best to roll the edges of the round sheets thinner, and stack the 5 sheets together. ⑥ Use a chopstick to press a vertical center line in the middle of the sheets, then place the olive-shaped dough on the bottom sheet, and roll upward while wrapping around the olive-shaped dough until it is fully rolled up, then use your fingers to pinch into the center, twist left and right to break it off, and place it seam-side down.

5. Purple Sweet Potato Rice Balls

[Ingredients] Purple sweet potato, rice.

[Method] ① After steaming the purple sweet potato, put it into a plastic wrap bag and press it into puree. ② Divide the purple sweet potato puree into 8 equal portions, and divide the rice into 8 equal portions as well, then roll each into small balls. ③ Place a small ball of purple sweet potato puree on a piece of plastic wrap, flatten it, wrap in a small rice ball, then gather the edges of the plastic wrap and twist into a ball, then peel off the plastic wrap, and the purple sweet potato rice ball is done. ④ Garnish with a mint leaf and it is complete.