The market · Roots and tubers · The Americas, West Africa, East Asia
Sweet potatoes
A sweet, dense root from Central and South America, unrelated to the potato — and what Americans often call a yam.
sweet · nutty · earthy
at its peakWhat to do with it
MinahasanTinutuanA thick rice porridge full of pumpkin, sweet potato, cassava, corn and greens, with no meat, eaten with smoked fish and dabu-dabu.No one here has made it yetKoreanDakgalbiChicken in a gochujang marinade, stir-fried at the table on a wide iron pan with cabbage, sweet potato, rice cakes and perilla — and rice fried in what's left.No one here has made it yetGujaratiUndhiyuA winter medley of flat beans, purple yam, sweet potato, baby aubergine and plantain, slow-cooked with fenugreek dumplings and a green masala of coconut and coriander.No one here has made it yetGoanKhatkhateA thick stew of many vegetables and toor dal in coconut, soured with tamarind and sharpened with tirphal — the dish of Goan Hindu festivals.No one here has made it yet
PeruvianCevicheRaw white fish cut into chunks and cured briefly in lime juice with red onion, chilli and salt.No one here has made it yetPeruvianPan con chicharrónPork simmered then fried in its own fat, in a crusty roll with fried sweet potato and salsa criolla.No one here has made it yetPeruvianPicaronesRings of squash and sweet potato dough, fried and drenched in a spiced syrup of chancaca.No one here has made it yet
PeruvianCevicheRaw white fish cut into chunks and cured briefly in lime juice with red onion, chilli and salt.No one here has made it yetPeruvianPan con chicharrónPork simmered then fried in its own fat, in a crusty roll with fried sweet potato and salsa criolla.No one here has made it yetPeruvianPicaronesRings of squash and sweet potato dough, fried and drenched in a spiced syrup of chancaca.No one here has made it yetKinds
- Orange-fleshed
- Sweetest and softest.
- White-fleshed
- Drier and starchier; common in Africa and the Caribbean.
- Japanese / Korean
- Purple skin, pale flesh, chestnut-like — roasted on the street in winter.
Goes with
Knowing it
- Where to buy
- Firm, with no soft or sprouting ends.
- Worth knowing
- Roast low and slow for the sweetest flesh: an enzyme turns starch to sugar as it warms through.
