3 Ingredient Sweet Potato Bites

It’s impossible not to snack in the afternoon. Even if you eat a late lunch, there’s still a good five hours until your next meal. So unless you’ve overstuffed yourself, which will definitely put you to sleep at your desk and get you fired, you will probably need to eat again. These three ingredient sweet potato bites are the perfect thing to tide you over so you don’t become tempted to indulge in some pre-packaged snack food that you’ll end up feeling guilty over later.

These sweet potato bites are inspired from the authentic Jewish recipes of potato latkes, which are tasty but aren’t exactly the healthiest of snacks. Made with only three ingredients, they don’t require a lot of time to prepare. I like to cook them in batches so I always have a healthy snack option for the week ahead. You can also take them to work with you and pop them in the microwave for a warm snack to go with a cup of coffee. That’s what I call instant (and lasting) energy!

Sweet potato is one of my favorite superfoods. I love that it’s mild sweet and versatility. I add it to curries, salads, soups or even baked sweets. These savory sweet potato bites are an original way to include this vegetable in your diet. You can even have them as a main dish with a salad and call it a healthy and filling lunch. I always pair sweet potato with a little bit of a healthy fat (coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil or avocado) to increase the absorption of its powerful antioxidants and fat-soluble vitamins.

The reason why I cook with sweet potato so much is its wide nutritional profile, which turns every meal I add it to into a real health treat. Its flesh is a concentrated source of the antioxidants betacarotene and anthocyanins (in purple-fleshed varieties), which offer protection against oxidative stress, congestion and free radicals damage to your eyes, skin and liver. Make sure you buy organic potatoes so you won’t need to peel its skin.

Sweet potatoes also contain phytonutrients such as cyanidins and peonidins that may lower the risk of passing heavy metals and oxygen radicals through the digestive system, so they’re a naturally detoxifying food. They have storage proteins called sporamins that have great restorative and anti-inflammatory properties. Their high fiber content also makes them the perfect snack for keeping you full for long periods of time, which can help you slim down.

Speaking of high fiber, sweet potatoes are great for regulating blood sugar levels by controlling the amount of glucose that’s dumped into your blood steam after mealtime. Both soluble and insoluble fibers have a great impact on the health of the digestive system and also for regulating cholesterol. While insoluble fiber nourishes the good bacteria in your colon and reduces the amount of time the food spend in your system, soluble fiber absorbs the excess cholesterol, old estrogens and toxins, and flushes them out of your system. Not bad for one little snack, eh?

Sweet potatoes provide over 90 percent of nutrients per calorie for most people, with the exception of niacin and protein. They also provide 100 percent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, 49 percent of vitamin C, 10 percent of iron and 15 percent of potassium. Some studies have found that the beta-carotene in sweet potatoes surpasses the amount in some green leafy vegetables. This recipe calls for pasture raised eggs, which are a great source of vitamin D, and coconut oil for all your anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral needs.

(Make this next: Raw Rainbow Noodles with Thai Sauce)

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