Liven up your boils this crawfish season by adding delicious Louisiana sweet potatoes

BATON ROUGE, La— Everyone knows that corn and potatoes are part of the standard crawfish boil, but have you thought to kick up the flavor by switching out regular potatoes for Louisiana sweet potatoes?

Many people think of sweet potatoes as a fall food staple, especially with some sort of sweet potato casserole serving as a Thanksgiving table tradition in so many homes. But Louisiana sweet potatoes aren’t just an autumn treat. They are available year round and make a fantastic addition to springtime crawfish boils. Throw them in whole or in halves.

The naturally sweet taste is the perfect contrast to those seasoned up mudbugs.

The health benefits of sweet potatoes are an added bonus. The Center for Science in the Public Interest ranked the sweet potato number one in nutrition of all vegetables. With a score of 184, the sweet potato topped the next highest vegetable by more than 100 points. Sweet potatoes contain virtually no fat, are low in sodium, and provide twice the recommended daily amount of vitamins A and C.

For the best results, make sure to use Louisiana-grown sweet potatoes. Our state has ideal soil and climate conditions for the sweet potato crop, allowing us to produce the tastiest sweet potatoes you can find.

The sweet potatoes will need a little more cooking time than the crawfish. We recommend adding them to the boil 7-8 minutes before adding crawfish. Keep in mind that if the sweet potatoes are halved, they will absorb more seasoning and may fall apart faster.

Be sure to prepare a big batch - everybody will be coming back for more. We recommend 4-5 pounds of crawfish per person and, of course, plenty of sweet potatoes!