The Potato Bowl: Sweet Potato VS. Yams!

The Potato Bowl: Sweet Potato Vs Yams!

Being raised by parents and grandparents from the Southern United States, we had Sweet Potato Pie especially starting in the fall and for holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas). No one ever said we are having a Yam Pie.  Our table included sweet potato biscuits (make with left over baked sweet potatoes), baked sweet potatoes, but here is the kicker we had candied yams!  Now you see the confusion?

Sometimes life puts you at a crossroads: Do you buy yams or sweet potatoes? They often look identical, but I’ve found that “yams” can be as low as 79 cents per pound, while “sweet potatoes” cost $2.49 per pound. So, what’s the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? At most grocery stores, absolutely nothing. It’s all a facade! “Most of the so-called yams you see in American grocery stores are actually orange-fleshed sweet potatoes,” explains Mary-Frances Heck, author of new cookbook Sweet Potatoes. The reason for the name mix-up, she explains, is because Louisiana sweet potato growers marketed their orange-fleshed as “yams” to distinguish from other states’ produce in the 1930s—and it stuck.

Real yams are entirely different root vegetables that are more like yucca in texture and flavor. They have bumpy, tough brown skin (that looks almost tree trunk-like) with starchy, not sweet flesh. Yams are more easily compared to the texture and flavor of white russet potatoes (with more fiber and complex carbs) and are best boiled and served alongside hearty braised meats. The neutrally-flavored yams are often used in Caribbean or West African cooking, and are difficult to find in the U.S.; sometimes you can pick them up at specialty grocery stores.

To make life even more complicated, there are a handful of varieties of sweet potatoes: orange, white, and purple. So let’s break down the differences.

Orange Sweet Potatoes

These are the sweet potatoes that you roast for meal prep, use for Thanksgiving sweet potato pie or marshmallow-topped mashed potatoes, and snack on as fries and chips. They’re versatile, easy to find, and the varietals within the orange-fleshed potatoes are all “pretty much interchangeable,” says Heck. She notes there will be “subtle differences in flavor, sweetness, and moisture” between Beauregard (brown skin, more deeply sweet, grown in Louisiana), Garnet (red skin, more like pumpkin flavor), and Jewel (coppery-orange skin, mildly sweet and earthy, California-grown).

Sweet potatoes should be your new vegetarian meat replacement because they “can carry spices in a way that other vegetables can’t.” Standard white potatoes’ flavor would be obliterated by a heavy seasoning from Spanish paprika, black pepper, and garlic, but it works perfectly as a bacon-ish flavor in her Cobb salad recipe (pictured above) or with cumin and coriander for tacos.

White Sweet Potatoes

White sweet potatoes may look like russets, but they’re loaded with some of the same fiber and vitamins that orange sweet potatoes have—though not as much beta-carotene. Since they’re a little drier in texture, Heck suggests using them for gnocchi so you can control the amount of moisture in the dough. For non-pasta applications, they go really well with bright, acidic sauces like chimichurri. The texture is more toothsome than mushy when roasted, but if you braise them low and slow, they end up being silky yet still hold their shape.

Purple Sweet Potatoes

Purple sweet potatoes have super amped-up anthocyanins like blueberries, which are great for both color and antioxidants. The North Carolina-grown Stokes varietal are the most popular (with a sweet chestnut flavor), but you can sometimes find Hawaiian Okinawan potatoes with purple-speckled flesh that are best boiled whole. To prevent the color from bleeding out when cooking, Heck suggests roasting, sautéeing, or frying purple sweet potatoes. A favorite way to eat them is topped with sambal butter. You can either make your own sambal paste with chiles, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, lime zest, and salt, or just mix 1 Tsbp. sambal oelek with a stick of butter. As it melts into your potato, all your problems may melt away too.

Summary:

True yams are an edible tuber originating in Africa and Asia. There are over

600 varieties, which vary widely in size. They are starchier and drier than sweet potatoes and rarely found in local grocery stores.

Sweet potatoes are a starchy root vegetable originating in Central or South America.

There are two main varieties. They have a long shelf life and are usually sweeter and moister than regular potatoes.

While both are underground tuber vegetables, they are actually very different.

They belong to different plant families and are only distantly related.

A sweet potato has tapered ends and thin, smooth skin and flesh that can range from light beige to burnished orange to purplish, even.

A yam is cylindrical, typically white-fleshed—there is a purple variety, too—and has rough, dark, almost hairy skin.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Level: Easy

Total: 1 hr 35 min

Prep: 10 min

Inactive: 10 min

Cook: 1 hr 15 min

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

6 sweet potatoes, even in size and scrubbed

4 tablespoons brown sugar

4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place sweet potatoes on sheet tray and bake for 1 hour or until soft. Remove from oven and let stand until cool enough to handle.

Split potatoes and remove the flesh to a medium sized bowl, reserving skins. In another bowl, add brown sugar, butter and cream cheese and the all of the spices and mash with a fork or rubber spatula.

Add the butter and cream cheese mixture to the sweet potato flesh and fold in completely. Add the filling back to the potato skins and place on a half sheet tray. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Spicy African Yam Soup

An unusual combination of simple ingredients that render a spicy, tasty soup that’s ready in less than 45 minutes!

Prep:

10 mins

Cook:

30 mins

Total:

40 mins

Servings:

4

Yield:

4 servings

Ingredients

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 clove garlic, minced

4 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup chunky salsa

1 (15.5 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained

1 cup diced zucchini

½ cup cooked rice

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

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Recipe Summary

Prep:

10 mins

Cook:

30 mins

Total:

40 mins

Servings:

4

Yield:

4 servings

Nutrition Info

Ingredients

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4

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Original recipe yields 4 servings

Ingredient Checklist

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 clove garlic, minced

4 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup chunky salsa

1 (15.5 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained

1 cup diced zucchini

½ cup cooked rice

2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter

Directions

Step 1

Heat the oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Saute onion, sweet potato, and garlic until onion is soft. Turn down heat if necessary to prevent burning.

Step 2

Stir in the chicken broth, thyme and cumin. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in salsa, garbanzo beans and zucchini. Simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.

Step 3

Stir in the cooked rice and peanut butter until the peanut butter has dissolved. Serve hot with pita chips and a green salad.