Purple Sweet Potato Pita 4 Ingredients

I watched Netflix’s show Secret of the Blue Zones and that inspired me to bake more with purple sweet potatoes (also known as purple yam or ube) to get some of their amazing anti-inflammatory and antioxidants properties (source). While it’s easy to find regular sweet potatoes where I live, purple sweet potatoes are rarer. When I found some at my local farmers market, I was so excited to experiment with them, so be ready for many purple sweet potato recipes.

Why Purple Sweet Potatoes?

Purple sweet potatoes are not as sweet as orange sweet potatoes, so I wouldn’t use them for sweet baking like in my vegan sweet potato brownies. They are also starchier, with less moisture, and when you combine them with flour, you need way more liquid ingredients to form the dough. So you can’t swap purple sweet potatoes for orange without adapting the recipe.

Ingredients and Substitutions

You only need 4 ingredients to make these pita bread rolls, and nothing too fancy (apart from the purple sweet potatoes).

Purple Sweet Potato – This variety of sweet potato is higher in starch than other varieties and can be replaced with orange sweet potatoes, but you will need slightly less water to form the dough as orange sweet potatoes have more moisture. Purple sweet potatoes with purple tubers are different from some varieties that have a purple skin with a white flesh. Plain Yogurt – Any kind of plant-based yogurt works, but the higher in fat (like coconut yogurt), the better. It keeps the center of the pita bread softer, making it easier to slice and open into pita pockets. Water – The amount of water needed varies depending on the way you cook the sweet potatoes and the variety you used. I like to boil them rather than baking them, because more moisture is removed during the baking process, making the pita dough difficult to form without adding way more water. Adding more water later to the pita makes them less soft and moist Self-Rising Flour – You need self-rising flour to make these pita bread rolls. If you can’t find any, you can make your own by mixing a cup of regular flour with two teaspoons of baking powder.