What's a sweet potato and how do you cook it?

Even though I have greatly increased my vegetable competency over the years, I have to confess that until recently, I knew next to nothing about sweet potatoes. And aside from trying a sweet potato fry once, plus taking a small dollop of baked sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving or Christmas (just to be polite) I had barely ever eaten them.

However, I am working through a long and complicated elimination diet, and for this round I'm ruling out members of the nightshade family: Potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. Since potatoes form a significant portion of my diet, I wasn't sure what to sub into that slot in my daily menu. I already eat a fair amount of brown rice per day, and a gluten intolerance rules out most breads, pastas, and other bland filler foods.

However, sweet potatoes are not actually potatoes. Thus, if you are allergic to potatoes, you can probably eat sweet potatoes without any problems. This starchy tuber bears only a passing resemblance to actual potatoes.

(If you are ruling out potatoes for some other dietary reason, such as cutting out carbs or watching your glycemic index, then you should probably avoid sweet potatoes.)

What is the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? The terms are often used interchangeably in North America. Sweet potatoes originated in Central and South America, thus are more common here in the New World. The true yam is an entirely different tuber, which hails from Africa and Asia. Yams and sweet potatoes are essentially interchangeable, unless you are some kind of tuber pedant.

Nutritionally, sweet potatoes are much more rich than regular potatoes. A 1992 study found that sweet potatoes ranked highest over other vegetables in regards to fiber, complex carbohydrates, protein content, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and calcium. A medium sweet potato has 438 percent of your daily allowance of vitamin A, and 28 percent more potassium than a banana. By comparison, the standard potato is sorely lacking.

There is no need to peel the skin of a sweet potato. Just like a regular potato, the skin is edible. It softens in cooking, and will mash up well with the rest of the sweet potato's flesh.

Image courtesy Flickr/Dave Lifson

Sweet Sweet Potato Recipes
But how do you cook sweet potatoes? The same way you would cook a regular potato, but sweeter. Sweet potatoes are, as their name implies, rather sweet. This means that most recipes are on the sweet side, which can make for an interesting and healthy dessert or addition to a weekend brunch.

Baked sweet potatoes
This recipe for baked sweet potatoes is as simple as it is reliable. Stab the sweet potato with a fork a few times, then bake it for about an hour at 425 degrees. Serve with butter, brown sugar, and/or cinnamon for a warm and filling dessert or decadent side dish.

Sweet potato latkes
Another sweet potato recipe that borrows from the regular potato playbook. These latkes are made with cinnamon and nutmeg, and would probably be delicious served with a dollop of vanilla yogurt in place of the sour cream used as a topping for traditional latkes.

Image courtesy Flickr/Stacy Spenley

Savory Sweet Potato Recipes
However, sweet potatoes also do well in savory and salty preparations. (Consider the beet, which is also sweet when roasted, but is generally served with a savory framework.) You can roast sweet potato wedges with rosemary and salt, dice them up and serve them as home fries, and turn them into potato chips.

Mashed sweet potatoes
This recipe for mashed sweet potatoes is straight up regular mashed potatoes, but made with sweet potatoes. In fact, the recipe itself calls for "sweet potatoes or white potatoes." I am a big fan of mashed potatoes, so I'm eager to try this.

By the way, if you have a steamer basket, I find that steaming the potato chunks works better than boiling them (the traditional method). They aren't as wet in the steamer basket, and steaming helps to preserve some of the nutrients that are otherwise lost to the boiling water.

Sweet and spicy sweet potatoes
This recipe is a little bit of both. It calls for brown sugar, paprika, and chili powder among other ingredients. Drizzle the sweet potato chunks with oil, toss with the spice mixture, then bake at 425 for about half an hour for a delicious side dish.

Gingered sweet potato and carrot soup
This thick blended soup sounds perfect for a winter afternoon, and what a nutritional boost!

Main image courtesy Flickr/Wally Hartshorn