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Home / Courses / Breakfast & Brunch / Sweet Potato Congee

Sweet Potato Congee

By: 👩‍🦳 Linda · Published: 🖨 June 10, 2018 · Updated: 💻October 30, 2020 · 🗨 2 Comments

Recipe ▼

Sweet Potato Congee is a Hokkien staple consisting of plain rice porridge and tender sweet potatoes. Usually eaten with side dishes and condiments.

Sweet Potato Congee is delicious eaten with side dishes and condiments. | MalaysianChineseKitchen.com

It’s good to be home after a three weeks family vacation to Taiwan and Japan. This was a much needed vacation and we had a wonderful time. The boys and I have never been to Taiwan and so it was really fun. To my delight, I found that I was able to communicate using Hokkien which they refer to as the Taiwanese language. I think I was able to understand about 60% to 70% of what was said in the Taiwanese language and that was pretty cool! 🙂

Taiwanese Food

The common Hokkien/Fujianese/Min Nan culture is the basis for Taiwanese food. Therefore, many of the dishes are somewhat familiar. Plain congee, alongside with white rice are staples. Similar to their Hokkien cousins, the Taiwanese also add sweet potatoes to their congee. In fact, sweet potatoes is a big thing on the island with the finest textured tubers being reserved for cooking in congee because these have far fewer fibers. Sweet potatoes are also roasted over charcoal as part of the street food offering, but that will be another story.

Sweet Potato Congee with side dishes Roasted sweet potatoes

Plain congee with side dishes

Taiwanese congee is taken with the same kind of side dishes similar to rice meals. These would be braised soy sauce pork belly, preserved radish omelet (chai poh nooi), and stir fry preserved radish and long beans (chai poh tao), just to mention a few. Taken together, these dishes are traditional daily food often referred to in our generation as “Grandfather’s meal”. So we were quite amused when the boys viewed the the same as a novelty, having no previous exposure to them. They especially liked the braised pork belly taken with congee or rice. The preserved radish omelet came in a close second.

Sweet Potato Congee – a Hokkien Staple

Prior to visiting Taiwan, I have not eaten Sweet Potato Congee since leaving my parents home a long time ago. Back then, the only kind of sweet potatoes available in Malaysia all had yellow flesh which were fine but I think orange colored sweet potatoes make a prettier Sweet Potato Congee. At a glance, you can almost mistake the sweet potatoes for salted egg yolks. As such, I went and bought some red garnet sweet potatoes to make the congee you see in these pictures.

Sweet Potato Congee is a Hokkien staple consisting of plain rice porridge and tender sweet potatoes. Usually eaten with side dishes and condiments. | MalaysianChineseKitchen.com

Cooking the Sweet Potato Congee

To make this congee, the sweet potatoes are usually boiled together with the rice for about 30 minutes. This will often tint the congee yellow. Since I prefer my congee to be white, I steamed the sweet potatoes separately and only added them to the congee in the last 5 minutes of cooking. That worked out beautifully!

Similar Tools Used in Making This Sweet Potato Congee

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy here.

Calphalon Contemporary Hard-Anodized Saucepan with Steamer Insert, 4 1/2-quart
Neoflam Retro 5QT Ceramic Nonstick Stockpot w/Glass Lid

Sweet Potato Congee is delicious eaten with side dishes and condiments. | MalaysianChineseKitchen.com
Print Pin Rate
5 from 1 vote

Sweet Potato Congee

Sweet Potato Congee is a Hokkien staple consisting of plain rice porridge and tender sweet potatoes. Usually eaten with side dishes and condiments.
Author : Linda Ooi
Course : Breakfast, Rice Dish
Cuisine : Chinese
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 249kcal

Ingredients
 

  • 1½ cups rice (rinsed and drained) (300g)
  • 10 cups water (2.4 litres)
  • 12 oz sweet potatoes (cut into bite size pieces) (340g)

Instructions
 

  • Combine rice and water in a large pot. Turn on the stove and bring water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and allow it to simmer for 30 minutes. Remove or tilt lid to prevent over boiling.
    Sweet Potato Congee-6
  • Prepare a steamer. Steam sweet potatoes for 15 minutes.
    Sweet Potato Congee-7
  • Remove and transfer to the pot with the congee during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
    Sweet Potato Congee-8
  • Turn off heat and allow sweet potato congee to sit for 5 minutes before serving.
  • Serve in individual bowls with side dishes and condiments.

Notes

Congee tends to thicken when allowed to sit. If it gets too thick, dilute with warm water.

Nutrition

Calories: 249kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @MalaysianChineseKitchen or tag #MalaysianChineseKitchen

Serving Suggestions

I served this Sweet Potato Congee with Braised Soy Sauce Minced Pork, Preserved Radish Omelet (Chai Poh Nooi), and Stir Fry Preserved Radish and Long Beans (Chai Poh Tao). Be sure to check back as I will be sharing the recipes for these side dishes in the days ahead.

Braised Soy Sauce Minced Pork is actually a quick fix for this Kong Tau Yew Bak (Braised Pork in Soy Sauce). You can make cook this braised pork ahead of time and serve it the next day with this congee. In fact, the braised pork tastes even better the next day. So, go ahead and do that for an amazing congee lunch or dinner.

UPDATE August 16, 2018: Here is the recipe link for Preserved Radish Omelet (Chai Poh Nooi) and Diced Preserved Radish Long Beans Stir Fry (Chai Poh Tao).

Sweet Potato Congee with preserved radish omelet, preserved radish and long beans stir fry, and soy sauce minced pork. | MalaysianChineseKitchen.com

Sweet Potato Congee is a Hokkien staple consisting of plain rice porridge and tender sweet potatoes. Usually eaten with side dishes and condiments. | MalaysianChineseKitchen.com

Categories: 🗂 Breakfast & Brunch, Chinese, Rice Tags: 📋 sweet potatoes

About Linda

Linda is a food writer and photographer who hails from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She now lives in Wyoming, USA. Her other blogs are Roti n Rice and Tea Tattler.

Malaysian Chinese Kitchen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Previous Post: « Hakka Kau Yoke (Steamed Pork with Taro)
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Comments

  1. Dandre says

    September 6, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    5 stars
    Honestly a real life saver- my baby has a tummy bug and wasn’t eating. This was the only thing he would take! Thank you for the recipe

    Reply
    • Linda says

      October 21, 2020 at 4:51 pm

      Glad to hear your baby enjoyed the soothing congee. It is so hard when babies get sick and don’t seem to want to eat anything.

      Reply

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