U.S. Potatoes Celebrating World Nutritious Day With The Theme Of A World Of Flavours On The 28th May 2022

Dear Readers,

Nutritious U.S. Potatoes Whip Up A World Of Flavours On World Nutritious Day

My Cooking Partner - FoodiLifecious (Sis Racheal) For World Nutrition Day By U.S. Potatoes

Do you know that World Nutrition Day is celebrated on May 28 each year? The aim of celebrating World Nutrition Day is to spread awareness about the importance of consuming and taking the right nutrition in our daily diet. A healthy diet includes the balanced intake of these five essential nutrients of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fat in a balanced portion.

"A World of Flavours" has been chosen as the theme for this year’s World Nutrition Day and in conjunction with the upcoming celebration, Potatoes USA has invited 20 key Malaysian social media influencers to whip up a repertoire of tantalizing and nutritious dishes using the U.S. Potatoes as a key ingredient.

U.S. Potatoes Celebrating World Nutritious Day With The Theme Of A World Of Flavours On The 28th May 2022

20 Key Social Media Influencers Whipped Up 10 Tantalizing and Nutritious Dishes Using U.S. Potatoes As Key Ingredient

This event was conducted at TCH Foodworks Culinary Workspace located in Petaling Jaya and kick started with an opening note from Timothy Harrison, Regional Agricultural Attache, Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur, followed by a Welcome Speech delivered by Eddie Saw, Potatoes USA Representative, Malaysia.

Opening Speech by Timothy Harrison, Regional Agricultural Attache, Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur

Welcome Speech And Introduction Video About U.S. Potatoes by Eddie Saw, Potatoes USA Representative, Malaysia

Nutritious Information About U.S. Potatoes

The event then proceed with the presentation from Indra Balaratnam, a well-known Dietary Consultant Dietitian that shared about Family Nutrition and Weight Management. During her sharing session, one medium U.S. potato provides about 110 calories of easy-to-digest calories with zero cholesterol, zero sodium and zero fat.

Each medium U.S. potato contains 26 grams of carbohydrates (9% of daily value) to fuel one's muscles and brain and a protein to aid in building cells and muscles. U.S. potatoes also rich in Vitamin C (30% daily value) where this nutrient plays an important role in supporting the body's immune system.

All these nutrients contained in the U.S. Potato make it a healthier choice ingredient and a nutrient dense vegetable to maintain the family's health.

On top of the nutrient sharing, Indra Balaratham also shared that U.S potatoes does not make one's gain weight as it has the lowest calories of only 74 calories for each 100 grams compared to yam (118 calories), taro (123 calories), sweet potatoes (137 calories) and tapioca (161 calories) as weight loss is about a proper calorie intake.

Potatoes can fit well into a balanced diet for a diabetics patient with an exchange of 1 carbohydrate portion with 1/2 cup cooked potatoes. She also shared several ways to lower the GI of the potatoes by cooking it:

With other high fiber food
With high protein food
Leave the skin on
Serve it cold
Add vinegar (an acid)

Indra Balaratnam Shared Nutritious Information About U.S. Potatoes

Potatoes Are So Versatile As They Can Be Prepared As Baby's First Food, Light Main Meal, Snack or Appetizer and Used As A Nutrition Boosting Ingredient. Source: Indra Balaratnam, Consultant Dietitian

As we already know, carbohydrates are a key fuel for muscles during exercise and for its recovery after one's workout session hence, it is really crucial for optimal physical and mental performance.

The event continued with the sharing session by Tania Lee, a Sports Dietitian Malaysia, on the Importance of nutrition for peak performance for athletes. She shared that potatoes have 3 grams of protein per serving which are great in building blocks for growth and this is a key component for our muscles, ligaments and connective tissues.

One U.S. potato also gives 15% of the daily potassium serving and this mineral is an electrolyte for our muscles to function well. For your information, each potato gives more potassium than what a medium banana provides.

Tania Lee Shared About The Importance of Nutrition For Peak Performance For Athletes

Before all the 20 social media influencers put their chef's hat on and created their own recipes using U.S. Potatoes which reflected the versatility, variety of tastes, scrumptiousness, and simplicity in their creations, Indra Balaratnam demonstrated two scrumptious and healthy recipes which are the U.S. Russet Potato Muffins and Texmex Style U.S Potato Skins.

These dishes are easy to make and are popular with Malaysians as their flavours are appetizing and easily titillate the palate to serve at any family gatherings as well as for quick meals. said Indra Balaratnam.

Indra Demonstrated The Preparation Of Two Scrumptious And Healthy Recipe Using U.S Potatoes

U.S. Russet Potato Muffins

Ingredients

3 medium-sized US Russet Potatoes – skinned, boiled and mashed
1 egg – lightly beaten
½ cup very finely grated carrot
1/4 cup finely chopped spring onion
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ cup (50 grams) shredded cheddar cheese
Salt & crushed black pepper to taste

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Very lightly brush the non-stick muffin pans with some olive oil
Cut the peeled US Russet potato into small cubes and boil in water for a few minutes till they are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain the potatoes and mash it up
Add in the beaten egg, finely grated carrot, spring onion, garlic powder and cheddar cheese. Mix well and season it with salt and black pepper to taste
Bake the muffins for 30 minutes until golden brown and crisp around the edges.
Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before gently taking it out of the muffin pan.

U.S. Russet Potato Muffins

Notes:

These muffins can be kept in the freezer. To reheat, just put them into the microwave for 40 seconds.

Easy to prepare, right?

Now, it is time for me to share with you the 10 recipes that have been specially curated using U.S. Potatoes as the main ingredient. For this event, I teamed up with FoodiLifecious on Team 1 to prepare the Gut Friendly Miso U.S. Potato Salad.

The ingredients needed to prepare this gut-friendly U.S. Potato Salad are:

Portion 1:

Two (2) medium-sized U.S. Potatoes
One (1) medium-sized Carrot

Portion 2:

One (1) medium-sized Onion
One (1) medium-sized Japanese Cucumber

Portion 3:

Two (2) tablespoon Mayonnaise
Four (4) tablespoon Greek Yogurt
Two (2) teaspoon of Miso Paste

Salt

Sesame

How To Cook:

Peel off the carrot and U.S. Potato skin and diced it into small cube
Boil the water and add in the diced carrot and U.S. potato.
Let it boil for 15 minutes.
Mash the boiled carrot and U.S. potato until slightly smooth texture
Cut the onion and cucumber into thin slices. (Remove excessive juice by pressing)
Add salt into the onion and cucumber to flavor it.
Prepare the mixture by adding in all the ingredients in Portion 3.
Mix all the well-prep ingredients into the mixing bowl
Add in roasted sesame and ready to serve (chill it before serving)

Team Briefing Before The Cooking Process Starts

Cooking In Process

Final Touch Up Before Serving For Scoring Process

Presenting The Gut-Friendly Miso U.S. Potato Salad

The other nine (9) creative yet scrumptious and healthy U.S. Potatoes recipes are:

Loaded Mashed U.S. Potato

Local Meet Western - Kerabu U.S. Potato

U.S. Potatoes Golden Ball

U.S. Potatoes Prosperity Wrap

U.S. Potatoes Salad

U.S. Potato Poke Bowl

Rendang Hijau U.S. Potato

U.S. Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Potato Waffle With Potato Smoothies

After the judging has been completed, it has finally come to the most awaited session, the winner-announcement where Top 3 recipes will be rewarded with RM 500, RM 300 and RM 200 respectively.

Hereby, I would like to express my heartiest congratulation to Team 10 for chosen as the Champion, Team 6 as First Runner Up and Team 7 as Second Runner Up for this cooking competition.

It was a great session and well done to the rest of the team for preparing such an interesting and healthy recipe. For more recipe ideas, you can visit the website at https://www.potatogoodness.com and remember to follow their official U.S. Potatoes Facebook page.