How To Turn Sweet Potatoes Into An Icy Treat This Summer

When you think of sweet summer treats, your mind may ping pong between food like ripe fruit, snow cones, soft serve, and more. Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, might be pretty low on that list. But as it turns out, sweet potatoes are an excellent icy treat to get you through all of summer's swelters. And the cherry on top of this sweet potato revelation? They're so easy to craft that you'll be eating the icy tubers any time a frozen treat is called for.

The simplest method of preparing your sweet potato frozen treat is to start by roasting sweet potatoes in the oven. You can roast them whole so long as they have a few punctures to release steam, and once they're done and beautifully caramelized, you can allow them to reach room temperature and freeze them. Then, any time the craving for a sweet summer treat rears its head, you can take the frozen potatoes out, let them thaw a few minutes, peel, and get to snacking. The texture of a frozen and slightly thawed sweet potato is soft and creamy akin to ice cream, making it naturally suited to a freeze-and-scoop scheme. It's the easiest way to make a healthy frozen treat that satisfies a sweet tooth.

Simplicity, they say, is the ultimate sophistication. But if you'd prefer to elevate these easy frozen treats, there are a multitude of great ways to do so. On the more-is-more side of the spectrum is the option to use the frozen sweet potato as a double-purposed base: Add a few scoops of vanilla ice cream, marshmallows, and pecans for a Sweet Potato Pie-inspired sundae. If that sounds over-indulgent, a drizzle of oil, cinnamon, and sugar, or a swipe of cinnamon butter, will dress up your frozen sweet potato ever so slightly without taking away from its inherent yumminess.

The natural honeyed sweetness of the sweet potato, exacerbated by the roasting process, will pair well with other flavors of ice cream and produce as well. Try it with peach and apple slices, with a scoop of coffee-flavored ice cream, or as a frozen scoop on the side with a hunk of peach cobbler. You can borrow a cardamom-lemon syrup from this Tasting Table recipe to drizzle atop your frozen treat, or you can freeze the sweet potatoes and incorporate them into a smoothie for a different kind of icy summer delicacy.