Updated Saturday, November 18, 2023.
Purple was one of my favorite clothing colors as a child and young teen but not so much as an adult. Purple is the color chosen for Epilepsy Awareness, but I wanted to share purple in ways other than wearing it… Generally, I enjoy cooking challenges, so I was inspired to use purple food as an ingredient for creating new recipes.
I remembered our local health food store often has purple sweet potatoes in the fall season. I special ordered five pounds of purple sweet potatoes. This year they were Stokes variety, grown in California, they are similar in size to white sweet potatoes. The last time I bought purple sweet potatoes they were smallish and I think grown in Hawaii.
Here are recipes for purple sweet potato treats I created for International Epilepsy Day.
Roasted Purple Sweet Potatoes
Wash sweet potatoes and dry them with a towel, trim off any funky spots, and poke with fork tines.
Lightly oil (I used sunflower oil) in a baking pan, place sweet potatoes in a pan with a shallow layer of hot water (1 cm,) cover the pan with a lid or tin foil, and roast at 350 for about two hours, add a little more hot water as needed. Roast until very soft and starting to ooze.
To make into purée: cool before peeling. Pulse peeled sweet potatoes in a food processor until smooth purée, this can be done by hand but won’t get quite as smooth. This method of roasting purple sweet potatoes with the skin on will keep the dark purple color best.
Steamed Purple Sweet Potatoes
Wash sweet potatoes and trim off any funky spots.
Cut in 1 ½ inch thick rounds but do not peel pieces.
Steam until very soft, about 45 minutes, keep checking water to not boil dry (like I did…)
To make into purée: peel rounds when cool and purée as above. Steamed purple sweet potatoes will lose a bit of their deep purple color.
Purple Sweet Potato Butter Mochi (Hawaiian style)
Preheat oven to 350. In a 8 x 8 inch square baking pan or similar, buttered and lined with parchment paper and buttered again.
Whisk ingredients in a medium bowl, in order listed:
- 1 cup cooled purple sweet potato purée
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar (I use half brown/half white)
- ½ cup milk of your choice (coconut milk is traditional in Hawaiian recipe)
- 4 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Add together:
- 1 cup sweet rice flour (Bob’s Red mill or mochiko)
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
Whisk these into the batter until smooth
Bake for about 40-50 minutes until firm in the middle.
Cool for 10-15 minutes and cut into squares in the pan. At this point, you can use the parchment paper to slide out onto a platter or serve from the pan.
Purple Sweet Potato Waffles
Add sweet potato puree to your waffle batter, using slightly less of the liquid/egg yolk in your recipe. For example, I used 1 whole egg and 1 egg white instead of 2 whole eggs. And I reduced the milk from 1 cup to ⅔ cup. Reducing egg yolk(s) keeps the end result more purple-colored.
Purple Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Frosting
- ⅓-½ cup of sweet potato puree
- 4 ounces of room-temperature cream cheese
- ⅓ -⅔ cup powdered sugar
Pulse sweet potato purée and cream cheese in a food processor (or in a mixer with a paddle attachment) until smooth, adding extra puree to deepen the color. Sprinkle in powdered sugar a little at a time until smooth and sweetness is to your liking. Use right away or leave at room temp until using (up to 4 hours) but then hand whisk before using.
Optional: add ½-1 teaspoon of vanilla or floral liquor of your choice or a few drops of rose water.
Purple Sweet Potato Butter Mochi Cake with Purple Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Frosting
Adorned with purple passionflowers.
Same recipe as listed, baked in a round springform pan with a parchment paper liner. Transfer to a plate very carefully, as this mochi cake is tender and delicate.
Purple Sweet Potato Ice Cream
Prepare home ice cream maker as needed.
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1-2 inches of cut-open vanilla bean
- 2 cups cream (divided)
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup superfine sugar
- 1 ½ cups sweet potato puree
- pinch kosher salt
- a few pinches of white pepper
- 1- 1 ½ teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
Pour milk, 1 cup of the cream and add vanilla bean to a small heavy-bottomed pot. Bring almost to a boil.
In a glass or metal mixing bowl whisk eggs with superfine sugar, slowly add hot milk and whisk well. Pour back into pot and cook over medium low heat, whisking until slightly thickened and starting to bubble around the edges. Pour through a fine sieve into a large bowl, straining out vanilla bean and any overcooked strands of egg white.
Add all remaining ingredients to the custard; the second cup of cream, sweet potato purée, salt, white pepper, and balsamic vinegar and mix thoroughly. You can use whatever equipment you have or whisk by hand. I used a food processor but next time I’ll use the vitamix (on low speed). This custard will be thicker than other ice cream custards. Transfer to a storage container and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before processing in your ice cream maker, I noticed it seems to freeze faster than usual recipes. This recipe makes 1 quart plus about ⅓ of a quart so I had to make a second small batch in my frozen bowl-style ice cream maker but it would fit in an old-fashioned cranked ice bath-style one. Alternatively, you could reduce milk, cream, sugar and purée by ¼ but still use 2 eggs.
Have Fun!
Creating these new purple sweet potato recipes and sharing them with my family and friends has been a joy. Posting my photos online for Epilepsy Awareness has been fun, although not easy to get photos that really show the beautiful color of these delicious tubers. I’m looking forward to next November when I’ll order Ube powder, which is purple yam from the Philippines and cook/create with it…
Please note: I used up the purple sweet potatoes I had and wasn’t able to retest these recipes. If you have questions or notes please reach out to me directly.
