Microwaved Yams/Sweet Potatoes

By adriennehannis

The different types of sweet potatoes/yams cook at various times – the yellow and orange ones are wetter and cook in about 10 minutes whereas the drier purple ones can take up to 20 minutes.

Ingredients

• sweet potatoes
• and/or
• yams

Preparation

Step 1

I wash and dry similarly-sized sweet potatoes/yams…
…stab them all over with a sharp paring knife…
…and arrange them in a circle in a Pyrex dish.

I cover the yams with a damp paper towel…

…and nuke them on high for 5 minutes. (If you’re just making one yam, it only takes about 5 minutes.) Then, I rotate the yams and nuke them for another 5 minutes. I keep checking and nuking the yams until they are soft to the touch.

Orange and yellow yams are normally done after a total of 10 minutes. For the purple yams, I usually need to nuke them for a total of 20 minutes and I rewet the paper towel halfway through the cooking process.

Don’t be lazy and zap the spuds for a total of 10-20 minutes right off the bat – you’ll end up with unevenly cooked sweet potatoes. Break up the cooking time in 5 minutes intervals x2 and then shorter intervals (e.g. 1-2 minutes) as the spuds soften.

Once they’re finished, I let them cool to room temperature, peel them…

…and stick them in the fridge in the same dish. Why waste your time washing a pan or dish when you can do it later?