orange is the new White
orange is the new White
IN THE QUEST TO EAT BETTER, some choices are complicated. For instance, while we were once warned to avoid fats, it turns out that some fats are actually food for us. In theory, we should all choose pasta made from whole grains, but it’s a hard sell since very few companies have figured out how to make it delicious. There are debates to be had, balances to be struck, and progress to be made.
Then there are choices that shouldn’t be complicated at all, like that between the ubiquitous white potato and the far superior sweet potato. On average, we each eat a little more than seven pounds of sweet potatoes a year, and more than fifty pounds of white potatoes, about half in the form of fries and chips. We’d be much better off if it were the other way around.
But before I sing the praises of the sweet potato, I want to tell you a story about how ditching the typical tuber can have implications beyond the health of you and your family. I want to introduce you to the potato lobby.
Before I joined the Obama administration, I didn’t know there was such a thing. But once I waded into the bog of food policy, I learned that practically every food—from almonds to avocados, candy to pizza—has a lobby. Despite their reputation, lobbies aren’t necessarily bad. They’re merely organizations that advocate for a cause or, in the case of food lobbies, an industry. The question is, is that product being pushed at the expense of people’s health? In the case of the potato lobby (as well as of numerous other lobbies), the answer is a resounding yes.
Early on, we set out to improve the lunches served to kids in public schools throughout the country. By the time we had finished our push, we had passed legislation that increased the amount of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains in school lunches and reduced the amount of sodium and saturated fat—a big win for children’s health.
Yet while we’d won a major battle, there was one scuffle that left me seething. The last thing we wanted was to become cynical, but the potato lobby tested our resolve. As a small part of our overall effort, in the new guidelines we decided to include a twice-a-week limit on serving French fries for lunch in schools—and those fries could no longer count as a vegetable. (It might surprise you to learn that fried potato consumption beats out even soda as an indicator of obesity.) For us, this was common sense: Parents don’t give their kids fries thinking they’re a substitute for nutritious vegetables, so why should the government? But the gang of well-funded groups hired to scrap for the spud treated it like a declaration of war.
Now, I’m not here to bash potatoes. Mashed, baked, roasted, they taste great. And it’s not that white potatoes are bad, though despite the lobby’s propaganda, they have only modest nutritional value. The problem is simply that we’re eating way too many of them, at the expense of more nutrient-dense vegetables.
Well, the potato pushers flipped out. They did what lobbyists do: They fought viciously for the people whose interests they’re paid to promote. My colleagues and I at the White House endured a series of typical hyperbolic arguments—Jobs will disappear! Farms will fold!—that tellingly had nothing to do with the well-being of kids. Yet we knew we faced a formidable adversary. Part of the lobbyists’ power comes from the money they wield—because we eat so many potatoes, big growers have a lot at stake and pay a lot to protect it. And part of their power comes from the fact that ten states are major potato producers. That means the lobby has leverage over enough people in Congress (twenty senators and dozens of representatives who reliably do their bidding) to make or break legislation. Those paid to push grapefruit, avocados, and other produce grown primarily in a couple of states have no such sway.
Both sides of the battle understood that victory was about even more than the potatoes consumed by those 31 million school kids. For us, it would also mean a win for the increasingly quaint notion that science, not politics or the influence that money can buy, should drive policy—a triumph for all Americans. And because how we eat as kids determines how we’ll eat as adults, victory would affect what these kids eat for the rest of their lives and what they’ll ultimately feed their children. That’s why the battle over children’s plates is so important, and why we wanted to shift the balance ever so slightly toward nutrient-dense foods like broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans.
I’d like to tell you that our arguments prevailed, that members of Congress joined hands and declared in unison that the health of our country’s children would always come before profit. No such luck. Congress gave in to Big Potato. Today, lunchrooms can serve French fries every day. The best we could do was require that an additional serving of actual vegetables accompany those fries. The potato lobby won, just like the pizza lobby—otherwise known as the Frozen Food Institute—when it convinced Congress that the tomato sauce in a cheese-covered disk of dough should count as a serving of vegetables, just as ketchup counted as a vegetable back in the 1980s.
Yet there’s good news: The fight continues. Until the day when voters overwhelm their representatives and senators with phone calls before big food policy votes—which, to be sure, is a day we need to work toward—each of us can take a stand against the potato lobby by making a different choice. I can tell you that white potato consumption saw a dramatic decline on the president’s own table, and I’ll be damned if this book includes a single recipe for them. Instead, I’m giving some well-deserved love to sweet potatoes. They taste better. They’re better for you. And eating them doesn’t empower a lobby that undermines the well-being of children.
And so this chapter celebrates this almost-too-good-to-be-true vegetable, which has more fiber and vitamins and, almost magically, fewer calories despite all that awesome sweetness. Here, you’ll find three categories of recipes. The first offers ways to dress up roasted sweet potatoes, which for the record taste damn good by themselves but even better with some salt, fat, and acid. The next set of recipes flaunts the luxurious texture of the roasted flesh and provide ways to set off its irresistible sweetness. The third category includes a technique for the impatient or habitually late among us who need a way to get dinner on the table in less than half the time it takes to oven-roast. Of course, my recipes represent just a few of the endless great ideas for serving sweet potatoes. The basic method—cook potato, add other good stuff—is just a jumping-off point. Experiment, riff, have fun. With sweet potatoes, it’s hard to go wrong.
LOTS OF POTATOES, LOTS OF POWER
MAJOR WHITE POTATO–PRODUCING STATES (2016 CROP VALUE)
IDAHO $968,274,000
WASHINGTON $813,313,000
WISCONSIN $322,944,000
CALIFORNIA $265,305,000
NORTH DAKOTA $222,480,000
COLORADO $213,466,000
OREGON $181,313,000
MAINE $173,800,000
MICHIGAN$173,604,000
MINNESOTA $152,040,000
Source: USDA Potatoes 2016 Summary
Because of how widespread the potato industry is, twenty senators and dozens of Congressional representatives speak for its interests, pushing for policies like allowing schools to serve french fries as “vegetables” every day of the week. So who speaks for children’s health? We have to. And we should eat more sweet potatoes instead; they’re delicious and have more fiber and vitamins than white potatoes.
WHOLE ROASTED SWEET POTATOES
Yes, I really am going to give you a recipe for cooking plain old sweet potatoes, even though the basic instructions could easily fit in a tweet. But the recipe deserves a place here—after all, what other vegetable tastes this good when you’ve done so little to it? So yes, follow this no-chop, no-peel method to make my in-skin mash-ups (this page) or whipped sweet potatoes (beginning on this page). Or just bask in the glory of the sweet, creamy flesh with a little salt and butter—my favorite way to eat them.
SERVES 4
Active time: 10 MINUTES
Start to finish: 1¼ HOURS
4 to 6 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed well and poked all over with a fork
WHIPPED SWEET POTATOES, THREE WAYS
Whipping roasted sweet potato flesh in the food processor transforms it from rustic to elegant, incorporating a little air to lighten the texture while playing up its creamy texture. The three ideas you’ll see here have one thing in common: They include something tangy to balance the sweetness. Take the idea in whatever flavor directions you like, using whatever acidic component you have on hand—buttermilk, sour cream, orange or lemon juice, or mild vinegars are all great. From there, you can up the ante with something fresh, spicy, salty, or a combination. I like to pick elements that match the tart ingredient. If you’re using lime juice, for instance, think cilantro and maybe chopped canned chipotles in adobo. If sour cream is providing the tang, think chives and bacon.
WHIPPED SWEET POTATOES
WHIPPED CRÈME FRAÎCHE–HERB
SWEET POTATO PUREE
You can’t go wrong melting butter into steamy sweet potatoes, but if you can get your hands on crème fraîche, get ready to taste something even better. The French cultured cream tastes like a hybrid of butter and tangy sour cream. Lemon zest perks things up, and herbs keep things interesting—woodsy sage if you’re in a cold-weather mood, or dill, which adds a grassy flavor that reminds me of springtime in Vienna. If you can’t get crème fraîche, you can use sour cream instead. It won’t be quite as rich, but it’s still plenty delicious.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Active time: 15 MINUTES
Start to finish: 15 MINUTES
2½ pounds sweet potatoes (3 or 4 medium), roasted (previous) and cooled
¾ cup crème fraîche
A few big pinches of thinly sliced fresh sage leaves or small handful of roughly chopped fresh dill
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
Kosher salt
Peel the sweet potatoes and transfer the flesh to a food processor or a large bowl. Add the crème fraîche, half of the sage or dill, lemon zest, and ½ to 1 teaspoon salt. Process or whip with a sturdy whisk until smooth and slightly fluffy. Season with salt to taste. Top with the remaining sage or dill.
WHIPPED SWEET POTATOES
MAPLE–CIDER VINEGAR
SWEET POTATO PUREE
Just a little maple syrup plays up the potato’s complex-tasting sugars, and vinegar and pepper flakes prevent sweetness fatigue.
SERVES 4
Active time: 15 MINUTES
Start to finish: 15 MINUTES
2½ pounds sweet potatoes (3 or 4 medium), roasted (this page) and cooled slightly
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
Peel the sweet potatoes and transfer the flesh to a food processor or a large bowl. In a bowl, combine the maple syrup, vinegar, pepper flakes, and ½ to 1 teaspoon salt. Process or whip the potato with a sturdy whisk until smooth and slightly fluffy, adding half the maple-vinegar mixture. Season with more salt or maple vinegar to taste.
WHIPPED SWEET POTATOES
GOAT CHEESE–HERB
SWEET POTATO PUREE
When sweet potatoes and tangy goat cheese join forces, the result is so good you can pretty much stop there. But I like to add lemon zest—which adds the flavor of the fruit but not its tartness—and a handful of whatever fresh herbs I’ve got on hand.
SERVES 4
Active time: 15 MINUTES
Start to finish: 15 MINUTES
2½ pounds sweet potatoes (3 or 4 medium), roasted (this page) and cooled slightly
½ cup soft goat cheese
Handful of coarsely chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as parsley, cilantro, tarragon, and marjoram
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Kosher salt
Peel the sweet potatoes and transfer the flesh to a food processor or a large bowl. Add the goat cheese, herbs, lemon zest, and ½ to ¾ teaspoon salt. Process or whip with a sturdy whisk until smooth and slightly fluffy. Season with salt to taste.
IN-SKIN MASH-UPS
This is a staple at my table: roasted sweet potatoes, slit on top to reveal their striking orange flesh, which I mash and fluff with a fork. To this foundation, I introduce a rotating cast of toppings, including these three winners. Take a look and you’ll notice a pattern—there’s always plenty of salt, something rich, and something acidic to keep all that natural sweetness in check. If you want to invent your own combination of toppings, use these three elements as a guideline and you’ll do great.
IN-SKIN MASH-UPS
BROWN BUTTER–ORANGE JUICE
SWEET POTATO MASH-UP
Some tricks from the pros don’t translate easily to the home kitchen. (Leave the deep-frying and flambéeing to the people with fire suppression systems.) Brown butter, though, should be in every cook’s arsenal. In my time at restaurants, I’ve melted virtual bathtubs of butter, patiently watching as it bubbled, frothed, and took on a golden-brown color and bolder, richer flavor as its nutty aroma filled the room. At home, it’s a great way to make a little butter go a long way. Spike it with orange juice and you’ve got next-level stuff to drizzle on sweet potatoes that tames their sweetness with fat and acid.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Active time: 5 MINUTES
Start to finish: 1¼ HOURS
4 to 6 Whole Roasted Sweet Potatoes (this page)
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
⅓ cup fresh orange juice
Kosher salt
IN-SKIN MASH-UPS
BACON VINAIGRETTE
SWEET POTATO MASH-UP
You’ll probably start drizzling this insanely easy bacon dressing on everything, but let’s start with this sweet potato. The starchy flesh soaks up the vinaigrette and delivers smoky, porky flavor with each bite.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Active time: 5 MINUTES
Start to finish: 1¼ HOURS
4 to 6 Whole Roasted Sweet Potatoes (this page)
6 ounces bacon slices
3 tablespoons sherry or apple cider vinegar
Kosher salt
IN-SKIN MASH-UPS
HERBED SOUR CREAM
SWEET POTATO MASH-UP
The combo of sour cream, chives, and potatoes is classic. But at home, I’d rather have my potatoes baked than fried, and I’ll take a sweet potato over a Russet any day. Lively lemon and extra herbs make a near-perfect pairing even better.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Active time: 5 MINUTES
Start to finish: 1¼ HOURS
4 to 6 Whole Roasted Sweet Potatoes (this page)
¾ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh chives
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or thyme leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt
SWEET POTATOES IN A HURRY
Roasted sweet potatoes often graced the First Family’s dinner table. Yet even though roasting takes almost zero effort, it does take time. So when my day job as a policy advisor left me behind on dinner prep, I resorted to a highly sophisticated culinary technique for getting sweet potatoes ready fast: Cut them into small pieces and cook them in a pan. A few minutes of prep saves you almost an hour of cooking time. I use some of that stolen time to take the golden-brown cubes in three awesome directions. The same sweet potato–cooking principles apply: Make sure to balance their sugary quality with salt, acid, or even something pleasantly bitter, like wilted greens.
SWEET POTATOES IN A HURRY
SPINACH, CURRANTS, PINE NUTS, AND BALSAMIC
SAUTÉED SWEET POTATOES
Spinach wilts in no time, adding color and flavor to the sweet, starchy cubes. An Italian-inspired trio of deliciousness does the rest—dried currants or golden raisins punctuate the potatoes’ natural sweetness, toasted pine nuts add richness and crunch, and balsamic vinegar provides the acid that balances it all.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Active time: 20 MINUTES
Start to finish: 20 MINUTES
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2½ pounds sweet potatoes (4 medium), peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
Kosher salt
6 ounces baby spinach
½ cup dried currants or golden raisins
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
SWEET POTATOES IN A HURRY
APPLE AND LEEK
SAUTÉED SWEET POTATOES
To give this dish a touch of French flavor without the fuss, I look to leeks, which deserve way more attention that they get. Cooked in just enough butter, they take on a silky texture and subtle sweetness that’s onion-like but more delicate. Apple brings a little tartness and crunch to contrast the chunks of sweet potato.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Active time: 25 MINUTES
Start to finish: 25 MINUTES
2 large leeks, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced crosswise
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kosher salt
2½ pounds sweet potatoes (4 medium), peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 large tart apple, such as Granny Smith
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
SWEET POTATOES IN A HURRY
GINGER AND SCALLION
SAUTÉED SWEET POTATOES
Scallions, ginger, and garlic are the holy trinity of aromatics in Cantonese cooking. They transform whatever they touch into something tasty—even when it’s something they don’t traditionally end up with, like the humble sweet potato. If you like heat, red pepper flakes are great here.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Active time: 25 MINUTES
Start to finish: 25 MINUTES
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2½ pounds sweet potatoes (4 medium), peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
Kosher salt
1 bunch of scallions, roots trimmed, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Toasted sesame oil to taste
1 lime, halved