Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite super foods to cook. If you don’t believe me, ask my husband. In our 2+ years of marriage, there have only been a handful of times when sweet potatoes have not been included on our Sunday grocery list. Greg and I both love Pad Thai but don’t love the high levels of sodium and unhealthy ingredients used at restaurants. To make sure we could still get our Pad Thai fix, I concocted Sweet Potato Pad Thai; a healthier version of Pad Thai made with sweet potato noodles, colorful veggies doused in a creamy peanut sauce, topped with chicken for Greg and Tofu for me.
Sweet potatoes are one of my go-to’s because they provide a healthy dose of complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest, allowing them to supply the body with energy over a longer period of time. This slow process breaks complex carbs into glycogen and stored in your body’s liver and muscles to be used as fuel for exercise, which is key to fuel an endurance athlete’s body during long workouts or on race day. Sweet potatoes are also high in Vitamin A, which plays a vital role in bone growth, immune system health, and helps the skin and mucus membranes repel bacteria and viruses. If you remember one thing from this post, make sure to load up on sweet potatoes during flu season!
Other performance enhancing benefits of sweet potatoes are their anti-inflammatory and blood sugar regulating properties. Stress, too much exercise, injury, and poor food choices create inflammation within the body, which will wreck havoc on your heath and performance if not addressed properly. The best way to control inflammation is by keeping your blood sugar levels low and stable. To do this, aim to eat a full serving of sweet potatoes post work out when your glycogen levels are low.
Make a plate of Sweet Potato Pad Thai to restore depleted glycogen levels and help refuel your recovery needs so that your body is prepared to train hard for your next workout. By opting for foods like sweet potatoes instead of processed foods, white breads and avoiding anything with high fructose corn syrup, not only will you feel better, you’ll likely perform better too.
Now that you know why you need to eat more sweet potatoes, lets talk about how to transform them into Pad Thai. If you don’t have a spiralizer, I highly recommend you invest $30 and buy one. There are so many things you can make with a spiralizer, the options are endless… but I’ll save that for another post. If you don’t have a spiralizer you can buy pre-spiralized sweet potatoes at Central Market, Target, and Tom Thumb to name a few.
Before spiralizing your sweet potato, peel it and cut the ends off. If you’re working with a giant sweet potato, I suggest cutting it in half. You’ll need a nice flat surface so the sweet potato can stick (and remain stuck to) the teeth of the spiralizer on both ends (see picture above). Otherwise you’re likely to experience a situation where your sweet potato falls off the spiralizer forcing you to chase the rolling vegetable around the counter top. If you can catch it before it rolls off and onto the floor its your lucky day! Otherwise, you may need to make an emergency grocery trip… trust me, I know from experience. That said, you won’t need to worry about this as long as you cut your sweet potato so that it has nice, flat ends and make sure it is tightly attached to your spiralizer.
As mentioned above, you have the option to make this dish with chicken or tofu. Before you begin spiralizing, chopping, or preparing the peanut sauce, I recommend cutting your chicken breast and/or tofu and letting it soak in the marinade. If you’re making a chicken version AND a tofu version make sure you cut and marinade each option separately to avoid cross-contamination from the raw chicken. I recommend cooking these in separate pans, but if you insist on using only one to limit the number of dishes to clean (we often do this in my household) make sure you cook the tofu first!
- • 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and spiralized
- • 1 cup of sliced baby carrots (shredded carrots will also work)
- • 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- • 1 small sweet onion, thinly sliced
- • 1/4 cup low or no sodium veggie broth
- • 1/4 cup raw, unsalted peanuts
- • 1 cup cooked, unsalted edamame
- • 2 TBS cilantro, finely chopped
- • Salt and pepper to taste
- • 2 TBS creamy peanut butter
- • 2 TBS sriracha
- • 2 TBS skim milk or unflavored almond milk
- • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- • 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- • 1/2 TBS maple syrup
- • 1/2 tsp turmeric
- • 1/2 tsp ginger
- • 1/2 tsp saffron seasoning (optional)
- • 1 large chicken breast (uncooked), cut into bite size pieces
- • 1 TBS fish sauce
- • 1 TBS maple syrup
- • Dollop of peanut butter
- • I TBS sriracha drizzled on top
- • 1 tsp curry powder
- • 1 tsp ginger
- • 1 container of extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
- • 1 TBS fish sauce
- • 1 TBS maple syrup
- • Dollop of peanut butter
- • I TBS sriracha drizzled on top
- • 1 tsp curry powder
- • 1 tsp ginger
- • Cut chicken breast, tofu (or both) into small, bite size pieces. Place proteins in their respective bowls, stir in marinade until completely covered and set aside. I suggest allowing protein(s) to sit in marinade 20 - 30 minutes while you prepare and cook veggies.
- • Peel, spiralize, and prepare veggies as needed and set aside.
- • In a large sauce pan, combine spiralized sweet potatoes with sliced or shredded carrots, pour in veggie broth and toss well. Cook on medium heat for 3 -4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- • Place sliced bell pepper and sliced sweet onion in sauce pan. Stir in salt and pepper and cook 5 - 7 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until veggies are tinder. (texture of sweet potato noodles should feel similar to the texture of cooked pasta.)
- • If cooking chicken, tofu, or both cook now. Place all contents including marinade into sauce pan and sauté until cooked (5 - 10 minutes). Set aside when done. (note: if cooking both, cook chicken and tofu separately to avoid cross contamination)
- • While veggies are cooking make peanut sauce by combining all ingredients into bowl and stir until creamy.
- • Once veggies are fork tender, stir in peanuts and edamame and cook for 1 minute.
- • Reduce veggies to low heat. Stir in peanut sauce and mix until veggies are completely covered and garnish with cilantro and raw peanuts.
- • To serve, place veggies in a bowl, stir in chicken/tofu and enjoy!
- • Marinade chicken and/or tofu first to maximize flavor
- • If cooking chicken and tofu, marinade separately and cook tofu first (if using same pan) to avoid cross contamination
- • Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days
What’s your favorite way to cook sweet potatoes? Comment below- I’d love to hear from you! 
