Food News You Can Use - Potato Shopper

cooking
Written By Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII

Potatoes represent a wonderful solution for many meals. They are inexpensive and a good source of nutrients and fiber. They have a great shelf life. And best of all they can be prepared quickly in a microwave in about 4-6 minutes for one. To keep meals and snacks exciting, today?s cook has a choice of many different kinds of potatoes and yams. Here is a guide for what to buy and how to prepare them.Baking potatoes - Brown fleshed potatoes lend themselves the best for baking. These come in plain, Idaho and Yukon Gold varieties. These bake quickly in the microwave and can be stuffed or served with fat free sour cream. They also make great oven fried potatoes.Yams - there are orangefleshed and yellow-fleshed yams in various shapes and sizes. The orange fleshed are best for baking - they are moist and sweet and have a beautiful appetizing color. If you are more experimental and want to make pies or mashed sweet potatoes, the yellow ones work well.Boiling potatoes - here is where you can have a lot of fun with various shapes and colors. Small potatoes are red, gold or white and can be boiled without peeling. Fingerling potatoes are long and thin like their name suggests and they can be used plain or even for a warm potato salad. If you want to have some fun try blue potatoes. Once boiled, these potatoes can be served with light margarine and fresh herbs. Or they can be tossed with a small amount of mayonnaise and served hot or cold as a salad. Pantry CheckWhen you bring your potatoes?home, make sure you have the?right ingredients on hand to?serve them. Here are a few of?our favorite ideas:??Light tub margarine - look?for one that is trans-fat free?and low (<1g) in saturated?fat.? Fat-free sour cream? Fresh herbs? Fresh or frozen broccoli -?excellent when steamed? Low-calorie maple syrup -?for yams? Cinnamon - makes a nice?yam topping? Low-fat mayonnaise - for?finishing warm boiled potatoes?into warm or chilled?salad? Red onions, frozen peas -?for wonderful potato salad?additions? Parmesan cheese - to top?baked stuffed potatoes? Low-fat chili - another?great potato stuffer? Vegetable oil spray - for?making oven fried potatoes 

Print Friendly and PDF
Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII

Judy’s passion for cooking began with helping her grandmother make raisin oatmeal for breakfast. From there, she earned her first food service job at 15, was accepted to the world-famous Culinary Institute of America at 18 (where she graduated second in her class), and went on to the Fachschule Richemont in Switzerland, where she focused on pastry arts and baking. After a decade in food service for Hyatt Hotels, Judy launched Food and Health Communications to focus on flavor and health. She graduated with Summa Cum Laude distinction from Johnson and Wales University with a BS in Culinary Arts, holds a master’s degree in Food Business from the Culinary Institute of America, two art certificates from UC Berkeley Extension, and runs a food photography & motion studio where her love is creating fun recipes and content.

Judy received The Culinary Institute of America’s Pro Chef II certification, the American Culinary Federation Bronze Medal, Gold Medal, and ACF Chef of the Year. Her enthusiasm for eating nutritiously and deliciously leads her to constantly innovate and use the latest nutritional science and Dietary Guidelines to guide her creativity, from putting new twists on fajitas to adapting Italian brownies to include ingredients like toasted nuts and cooked honey. Judy’s publishing company, Food and Health Communications, is dedicated to her vision that everyone can make food that tastes as good as it is for you.

Previous

Small Plates Make Super Appetizer Display
Next

Low Carb Diets Bad for Heart & Brain