One Ingredient, Five Ways: The Sweet Potato

Say hello to Mademoiselle Sweet Potato. Not only is she gorgeous on the inside, but she also has lots of Vitamin A, which is great for your peepers. Don’t worry if you’ve gotten her confused with the yam – the majority of grocery stores label their sweet potatoes as yams. The crazy thing is that they aren’t actually related, and yams are pretty hard to find outside of South & Central America. A good rule of thumb when shopping is to remember that the sweet potato has a smoother skin, while the yam has a darker, more bark-like exterior.
I was never really a fan of this sweet little tuber until last year. Before then, I had only had it covered with marshmallows and brown sugar at Thanksgiving as a kid. But everything changed when my husband made me sweet potato and black bean tacos. I liked them so much that we had them two times that week. And I’ve been experimenting with this beauty ever since. Savory or sweet, the SP has so many possibilities. Grab a few this weekend and start having fun with the recipes below:
2. Carrot and Sweet Potato Latkes from Yum Universe
3. Baked Sweet Potato Fries from Cookie + Kate
4. Kale and Sweet Potato Soup from Food & Wine (you can replace chicken stock with vegetable)
5. Baked Sweet Potato Falafel from 101 Cookbooks
P.S. If you still feel confused about sweet potatoes vs. yams, this piece at Bon Appétit is really helpful.