These purple sweet potato pita are high-antioxidant small bread pouches that can be used with all your favorite fillings as a much healthier alternative to store-bought pita. And since it’s made with only 4 ingredients, they are super easy to whip up!
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.
How To Make Them
Pro Tips
These purple pita breads are quite easy to make, but I have a few tips to make sure you’ll get them right every single time.
- Cool down the boiled sweet potatoes before using them. High temperatures activate the gluten in the flour, and the dough would become very elastic.
- Adjust with water – The dough forms little lumps before adding water. The water helps bring the ingredients together into a dough ball.
- Cooking – You can cook pita bread in a non-stick saucepan, but they puff less.
- Preheat the baking sheet in the oven at 450 °F (230 °C) to increase the chance of the pita forming a good pouch.
- Roll the pita not too thin, as it will puff the bread and make the pocket easier to cut and fill in. You also want to keep the border a bit thicker as you roll.
More Sweet Potato Recipes
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Purple Sweet Potato Pita
Ingredients
- 1 cup Purple Sweet Potato Puree - cooked, mashed, cooled (note 1)
- ⅔ cup Vegan Yogurt of Choice - plain, (note 2)
- 2 ½ cups Self-Rising Flour - (note 3)
- 2-3 tablespoons Water
Optional
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
Instructions
- Peel and roughly cut the sweet potato into cubes and place them in a non-stick saucepan.
- Cover the pan with cold water, bring to medium-high heat, cover the saucepan with a lid, and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to medium boil and cook for about 10 minutes until the sweet potato cubes are fork-tender.
- Drain in a sieve over the sink and let them steam out for 30 minutes. You want the sweet potatoes to be at room temperature before using them.
- Preheat the oven to 450 °F (230 °C). Place a large baking sheet in the oven to preheat for 10 minutes.
- Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork into a smooth puree. Fill a measuring cup, pack it, sweep off the excess, and place the cup of mashed sweet potato puree in a mixing bowl.
- Add yogurt in the bowl and stir to combine.
- Pour the self-rising flour and stir until it looks crumbly. Use your hands to knead and squeeze the dough to form a dough ball, adding water as you go to bring the ingredients together. It will be messy and a bit sticky, that's normal!
- Divide the dough ball evenly into 8 portions.
- Sprinkle flour on the work surface and roll each dough ball with a rolling pin into a 5-inch (12 cm) round shape. Set it aside on a floured surface. Roll the 8 dough balls.
- Remove the preheated baking sheet from the oven, add a large piece of lightly-oiled parchment paper on it, and place each rolled pita on the sheet, making sure they don't touch each other.
- Bake the pita for 5 minutes at 450 °F (230 °C), reduce the temperature to 400 °F (200 °C), and keep baking for 10 to 12 minutes until they are golden on the edges but still soft in the center.
- Remove the purple pita from the oven and let them cool on a rack.
- Use a sharp knife to slice and open as a pita pocket.
I absolutely love your recipes.
This one turned out so savoury.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you!!
I. Ant have wheat, have you tried this with a gluten free flour?
I didn’t try all-purpose gluten-free flour blend, it might work.
Very nice, what a clever recipe. The taste was really good!
Made a very TCPK dinner last night! These sweet potato pita (which were delicious) and your TVP meatballs as a filling. Perfect!