Besides roasting as sides and sprinkled with some salt, another method is to steam them, and eat them as sides or to make puree. I seldom use sweet potato as an ingredient to integrate into a dish. Any ideas are welcome, even sides.
These African tubers (if not mistaken) are primarily used in Candied Sweet Potato dishes during the North American holidays of Thanksgiving. They are prepared in a casserole with assorted sweet toppings and baked in oven. Had tasted them once on a trip to Montreal & Quebec.
I personally am not a tuber woman. I only like âjacket baked potatoesâ or boiled and served with Octopus, Pulpo la feira is the renowned Galician dish served with octopus and Cachelos, a yellow creamy potato used with this dish.
There are 2 main types of sweet potatoes:
-
The Yam with a burnt orange interior which is a common North American sweet potato.
-
El Boniato which has an off white interior & is oval in shape and is used primarily in Latin American and Caribbean cuisines, for example: Cuban cuisine and Dominican cuisines.
2 Likes
Cubed, seasoned, and roasted with regular potatoes and onion wedges is my favorite; but baked like a traditional potato and sweet potatoes fries are excellent too. As a snack Iâm fond of purple sweet potatoes baked (or grilled) then peeled and eaten like a banana.
3 Likes
Just sayinâ.
I have to commend Barca.
"I personally am not a tuber woman"goes in my book as one of the best sentences ever.
Thank you 
6 Likes
I love this salad, perfect time of the year for it.
2 Likes
Roasted with spicy black beans over it or vegetarian chili as the topping.
3 Likes
during the âoffâ season i.e. non-holidaysâŠ
I like to boil them in the skin. when done the skin slips off.
you can slice or mash them on your plate, to preference.
basically not much different that a baked/foil wrapped potato - nice change up.
for a bash of âgrilled vegetablesâ I par-cook them about 80% done, peel and cube, toss with the other goodiesâŠ
1 Like
I like them savory, not sweet.
They pair well with fresh herbs, flavorful herby sauces and pastes (chutney/chimichurri/charmoula/salsa verde/harissa/indian chutney), or other strongly flavored condiments and ingredients.
Also with a foil of something creamy and/or tart - like yogurt, sour cream, cheese, etc.
Steam in the microwave or pressure cooker, then slice into rounds or mash. Top with butter, yogurt or sour cream and fresh herbs or one of the strongly flavored condiments above. I donât love the fibrousness of some varieties - a ricer helps with that.
Fries / oven fries / roasted in cubes are always good too. Sweet potatoes donât get very crisp on their own, so if you want you can lightly coat with seasoned flour or `cornstarch or similar (Ottolenghi uses cornmeal / polenta but I donât like that grainy mouthfeel in the end product).
You can use them in many (but not all) places that call for potatoes - eg Indian potato sautes and curries, patties, stuffed breads (samosa, paratha, naan), chaat, etc.
There are some places I donât think they work as a potato substitute because of the sweetness and flavor - shepherds pie topping, gratin, and similar.
They can also be used in places you might use butternut squash. A fall fattoush is one idea.
6 Likes
Same here. Iâve to admit, itâs not a vegetable I naturally will choose to eat. But if cooked or paired correctly, they can be delicious.
2 Likes
Kenyaâs minister of agriculture has written a guide to use sweet potatoes.
More about this here:
https://www.sweetpotatoknowledge.org/tabs/about-the-sweetpotato-recipes/
The actual book (in PDF) can be downloaded with this link. Quite comprehensive, a lot of recipes, worth a look.
1 Like
I think we should do away the use of the word âyamâ when describing orange sweet potatoes. I think it confuses some who are not from the US.
I prefer orange sweet potatoes as a puree, but seem to prefer a firm orange squash like red kuri or kabocha for most stewed preparations.
3 Likes
In Europe, we can find the orange version of sweet potatoes easily. In Asia, they have a yellow version, which they use a lot in desserts.
Yes, yam can mean another vegetable. There are white and purple version.
3 Likes
Agree. When I think âyamâ itâs always other things - because there are actual yams in India / rest of the world.
3 Likes
In the US, I think the orange one (that tastes very sweet) is most common too - because thatâs what most people want.
Thereâs a cream/white variety thatâs barely sweet, which I much prefer. Can never get it unless I go to the store and look myself - and even then, theyâre not always in stock.
3 Likes
Sweet potato pie. Sweet potato pound cake (delish!). Recipes abound. The Shakers made sweet potato bread rolls, which are great. Food52 has a tempting-sounding recipe for whole grain flour sweet potato muffins. Wegmans food court has roasted cubes with spinach, red onion, and craisins. They also sell it in frozen bags.
6 Likes
The link seems to be a dead end.
Itâs a direct download link, check your download folder on your computer to see the pdf.
While candied sweet potatoes are definitely a popular dish on many Thanksgiving tables, itâs a particularly vile way to prepare an otherwise pleasant ingredient. I abhor the Thanksgiving nightmares as do many folks I know, and I wouldnât use âmostâ when talking about how Americans use them.
They are far more often made into fries, cubed and roasted with other root veggies, or just baked and eaten as is.
1 Like
I love Japanese sweet potatoes. However, donât try to use them as a substitute in potato salad. It doesnât work at all.
2 Likes
4 Likes
