Sweet on sweet potatoes

Like pretty much anyone raised by a midwestern mom, I'm big on breakfast. Eggs, buckwheat pancakes, french toast, oatmeal--hearty, wholesome food. Best of all, though, are hashbrowns. Chunks of potatoes, preferably with onions and peppers, maybe some diced sausage. However, I've pretty much given up on white potatoes. Too much starch, high glycemic load--not enough upside to make up for the downside. I'll still enjoy a plate of country fries for breakfast after a bike hike or race, and of course mashed potatoes are still my all-time favorite special occasion side dish.

I've also grown up on sweet potatoes, baked in their skins and eaten simply with butter and salt. However, it wasn't until sweet potato fries became prevalent that I started thinking of that "other potato" as an alternative to (and tastier version of) the good ol' spud. I love a plate of sweet potato fries 'way beyond what I ever felt for regular white fries, but they still aren't all that healthy, with the extra starch coating given all fries to make them crisp up more easily. (By the way, boiled sweet potatoes supposedly have much lower glycemic load than baked, since the shorter cooking time reduces sugar conversion.)

This morning's breakfast hash is a great example of how a trusty regular can be so easily improved by this small switch--they cut more easily, cook faster so don't soak up the same amount of oil, and develop deeper sweeter flavor. Every bite of sweet potato, onion, zucchini, and parsley was simple and pure heaven.