Sometimes even the healthiest of eaters miss the things they used to eat before they cleaned up their diets. That’s true for us, anyway.
Both my husband and daughter react negatively to good old fashioned potatoes. You heard that right. No mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving; no French fries or potato chips.
So, we’ve cleaned up their diets and have committed to (usually) healthy alternatives. And I’m along for the ride, potato-wise.
For us, one part of healthy eating has been finding ways to replace what we used to enjoy.
Fortunately, not only are Japanese yams healthier than standard potatoes*, but they also taste better, in our opinion.
They’re white on the inside, and easy to mash and put on the table next to the turkey (or tofurkey). Next to regular potatoes, I’m not sure I’d be able to tell them apart by looks alone. Kind of like Gwenyth Paltrow and me. (Kidding. Sigh.)
As an added bonus, this healthy alternative to potatoes has just a single ingredient. If you’ve seen my homemade almond butter, you’ll know I like to use as few ingredients as possible.
They’re one of the easiest crowd pleasers I know how to make. Everyone who’s tried these at our house, loves them. And once again, I’m almost embarrassed to share the recipe because it’s so simple. Consider it a gift from me to you!
Japanese Yam Chips
Ingredients
- 1 large Japanese Yam Depends on how much you want to make
- 1/2 teaspoon unrefined salt adjust according to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
- Wash a Japanese yam
- Peel it if you want to, or keep the skin on for extra nutrition
- Cut the potato into 1/8 – 1/4″ slices
- Arrange the slices on a baking mat like this one (afflink) or on parchment paper
- Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly browned (they’ll be more brown on the bottom, so check as often as you need to)
- Immediately after taking yams out of the oven, toss in salt.
Notes
Nutrition
My husband and I like them baked like a regular baked potato, as well, but the little fiber strings they sometimes have deter our texture-sensitive daughter. She jumps for joy at the chips, though, so it’s a win for the whole family!
*Source: https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-eating-sweet-potatoes-yams-4562.html
