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What Are Sweet Potatoes?

Only related to the potato by name, sweet potatoes bring a variety of flavors to side dishes. With its sweet taste, the tuber, also known as batata, goes well with spicy dishes.

Interesting facts about the sweet potato

Like the potato, the sweet potato originally comes from South America. In contrast to this, however, it is not a nightshade plant, but belongs to the morning glory plants. Both the roots and the leafy green above the ground are used by the plant. As a rule, we only have tubers that are imported all year round, mainly from the USA and Israel, and that have an intense orange color. In the main growing area, China, there are other varieties with white or yellowish flesh, which are hardly available in Germany. In Europe, the batata grows in Spain and Portugal. The taste of the spindle-shaped to oval tubers is reminiscent of carrots when raw, but when cooked they have a sweet, nutty aroma.

It’s in the sweet potato

The batata owes its sweet note to its sugar content, which is about three times higher than that of potatoes and makes the tuber a relatively nutritious vegetable with around 110 kcal per 100 g.

Shopping and cooking tips for sweet potatoes

At home, store the tubers in a cool, dark place — not the fridge — and process within two weeks. When preparing sweet potatoes, you can use the potato as a guide. The tubers are ideal for making sweet potato puree, sweet potato gnocchi, sweet potato soup, sweet potato casseroles, or sweet potato fries. A hearty to hot sauce goes very well with it. You can also enjoy them raw, bake them in the oven or boil them in their skins and add a pinch of salt, the cooking time is around 15 to 20 minutes. Popular vegetarian and vegan dishes are batata and lentil curries, vegetable pans with the orange tuber or sweet potato kumpir. Our sweet potato recipes provide you with more ideas for delicious dishes such as our sweet potato salad. For the barbecue season, for example, we recommend our simple recipe for grilled sweet potatoes. We have also put together some practical tips on how to grow sweet potatoes.

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Written by John Myers

Professional Chef with 25 years of industry experience at the highest levels. Restaurant owner. Beverage Director with experience creating world-class nationally recognized cocktail programs. Food writer with a distinctive Chef-driven voice and point of view.

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