Can You Juice A Sweet Potato? How To And Recipes…

Sweet potatoes are one of the odder things you might consider putting in your juicer.

If you’re like me you walk up and down the produce section of the grocery store wondering what to try next, and then the sweet potatoes look at you and you wonder…

Can I juice sweet potato? Well I did some research because I knew that regular potatoes are poisonous if you eat them raw but it turns out that yes you can in fact juice a sweet potato, it’s got that little bit of sweetness like a carrot, and a lot of similar nutrients which you can tell because of the color.

To physically bit into raw would be challenging at best you can juice them no problem at all and test out some really unique juices if you need some variety.

I’ve got some recipes further down so read on…

Should you peel sweet potatoes before you juice them?

It’s a bit of a mixed bag when I looked into this one, but the consensus seems to be that when you’re starting to juice sweet potato and you’re not sure about how the flavour will be you should peel them. Leaving the skin on darkens the color of the juice which can be off putting and tends to leave a stronger flavor.

If you do leave the peel on make sure you give them a good scrub to get rid of any dirt of chemicals which might be left over on the skin from when they were in the ground. Same with all vegetables before you juice them, because they’re raw you want to make sure you clean them since the bacteria won’t get cooked off.

It’s a bit of a one for one, no peeling saves washing but washing saves not peeling, up to you which you’d rather do. You can even experiment with both and see how the flavor gets affected.

Is it safe to drink raw sweet potato juice?

Yes! But I wan to make it extremely clear that you should not juice raw regular potatoes because they are poisonous, and you shouldn’t juice cooked potatoes because they’re disgusting.

Sweet potatoes on the other hand are completely fine because they don’t have any of a compound called salanine which is a toxic substance that can lead to headaches, bloating, nausea and diahrea. And as a person who’s eaten undercook potatoes I can assure you it is not a good time…

Some people do eat raw potato and are fine of course but I really don’t recommend it, also the more green or the more sprouted your potato is the more of this salanine there will be and the worse you’ll feel if you do eat it.

The only thing stopping you eating a raw sweet potato is that they are super hard to get your teeth into, and over all not very tasty compared to a nice roasted sweet potato or some fresh sweet potato and carrot juice.

How To Juice Sweet Potato

There’s not a lot to it when it comes to preparing a sweet potato, you just go about it the way you would most other root vegetables. Make sure it’s clean, make sure it’s been chopped up and if you want to then make sure you peel it. Pretty simple.

Step 1. Peel it. Get your peeler out and give it a good peel getting all the skin off, you don’t have to be too thorough since it’s all going in the juicer any way but you’ll want to give it a 95% peel and peel out any weird looking bits.

Step 2. Cut it into chunks. If you don’t it will clog your juicer, you’ve been warned! Like carrots sweet potatoes are a very hard root vegetable, they’ll go better through a masticating juicer but you will need to cut them up into appropriately sized chunks if you don’t want it to clog up.

Step 3. Juice it with other ingredients. You can have a straight up sweet potatoe juice if you want but its not the nicest so you’ll probably want to mix it with some other ingredients. Carrot orange and ginger are always a good combination, keep all the orange fruits and veggies together.

Sweet Potato Juice Recipes

Here are 3 easy sweet potato juices to get you started, if you’re wanting to go it alone the best fruits and veggies to pair wth sweet potato are:

• Carrots
• Oranges
• Ginger
• Apples
• Celery
• Turmeric
• Bell pepper

If you have those as a base you’ll be on to a winner in no time.

Sweet potato and apple juice

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 apple
• 1 inch of ginger
• 2 celery sticks

Juice the ginger first so that it gets pushed through by the other ingredients and then sweet potato, celery and the apple last because it’s nice and watery to flush the other ingredients through the juicer.

Sweet Orange Carrot and Potato Juice

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 2 large carrots
• 2 large oranges

2, 2, and 2, you can’t go wrong with this juice it’s nice and sweet, it’s bursting with vitamin C and you get a ton of Beta carotene which is an anti-oxidant that converts into vitamin A to help your skin, eye sight and immune system (source). One of the many health benefits Sweet potato juice has.

Super Sweet Potato Juice

• 1 Large Sweet Potato
• 2 Apples
• 2 Oranges
• 1 inch of ginger

Make sure you peel your ginger before you juice it otherwise it could cause damage to it because of how fibrous it is. And again you’re going to want to put it through first so that the other ingredients can help flush it through the juicer. If you’re using a centrifugal juicer you might want to double up the ginger because the yield can be smaller.

F.A.Q

What does sweet potato juice taste like?

There is a weird phenomenon in the world of juicing where you get convinced that juicing the vegetable will make it taste different. Sweet potato juice tastes like sweet potato… Maybe with less cajun seasoning than you’re used to on your wedges though!

It’s got a mild sweetness to it, similar to the sweetness of carrots, not in your face like fruit juice is but not bitter like kale can be.

Can you juice purple sweet potato?

You certainly can, they are the same as their orange counter parts and don’t contain any Selanine that could make you sick. So you can eat them raw if you wished but much better to put them through the juicer for some really funky colors of juice.

Are sweet potato leaves edible?

Yes indeedio, they are completely edible which I was surprised about, I’ve never had the inclination and wouldn’t have believed it before I researched it. They are a little bitter and should be delt with in cooking the same way spinach is.

Can you juice sweet potato leaves?

You can eat them so yes you can juice them, but the yield is going to be very small, probably not worth it. And I’m not going to hurry to eat them either if I’m honest, they can go straight into the compost I don’t think I’m missing out on some medical marvel by leaving them. Plenty of goodness in the sweet potato itself.

Do sweet potatoes turn your skin orange?

Yes, they will eventually, it’s the beta-carotene that does that if you get high levels of exposure to it. So carrots sweet potatoes and canteloupes are the main culprits but it’s all fruits and vegetables high in beta-carotene. You have to have a regular stream of it coming into your body though so it’s not a very common problem.

Final Thoughts

So what do you think? Are you going to stick your sweet potatoes in the juicer? Are you prepared to try it out and give it a shot? If you do let me know in the comments below.

It’s a safe way to eat them and can add some really unique flavors to your glass of juice if you’ve been struggling to mix up what you’ve been drinking every day. But if you’ve been enjoying sweet potato pie more than keep the starchy goodness for that

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