These sweet spuds account for nearly 85 percent of sweet potato production in North Carolina and are continuing to become more popular, according to North Carolina Sweet Potatoes. Bayou Belle matures in 110 to 120 days and is resistant to the notorious southern root-knot nematode, along with soil rot, rhizopus soft rot, fusarium root rot, and fusarium wilt. I love roasting Hannah potatoes with red bell peppers, onions, leeks, and carrots for a filling and wholesome side dish. But since Im in Alaska, Ill stick with Georgia Jet and Mahon Yam, which is wonderful too. Legend has it that this variety came about after a young gardener named Nancy Hall accidentally crossed flower seeds with a potato, resulting in a sweet potato. Another type of sweet potato not to be confused with regular potatoes is the OHenry cultivar. Unlike typical vining varieties, bush types are more compact and therefore better suited to small gardens or growing in containers. Hannah sweet potatoes are perfect mashed as a side. Shes especially proud of the flowerbeds she and her three-year-old son built with rocks dug up from their little Alaska homestead. Sometimes called the Yellow Hannah or Sweet Hannah, this variety of sweet potato has lightly colored tan skin. We may not be able to turn up the heat, but with Georgia Jet, we only need to wait 90 to 100 days til shes ready for picking. New potatoes, as their name implies, are harvested at an earlier point during the growing season; they have a smaller size and thinner skin than other potatoes. This is the kind of sweet potato you will most likely find at the grocery store (technically a true yam is a starchy root that looks completely different from a sweet potato!). You won't achieve a smooth, creamy mash with Red Bliss, but the thin red skins require no peeling and the sweet, buttery flesh is complemented by garlic, herbs, and lemon. Can you tell your jewels from your garnets? Ipomoea batatas is the botanical name for all varieties of sweet potato. Sweet potatoes varieties have white flesh or orange flesh, and, there are even some varieties with purple flesh. The Yukon gold potato stands beside the russet as one of the most popular types of potatoes in the kitchen, and for good reason! We occasionally link to goods offered by vendors to help the reader find relevant products. They have a lovely nutty flavor. Try using this variety in our recipes for candied yams (or, more accurately, candied sweet potatoes), miso-scallion roasted sweet potatoes, and sweet potato biscuits. Stokes purple sweet potatoes are one of the most popular purple cultivars. They have deep purple or garnet-colored skin with white flesh that turns buttery yellow when cooked. Fun fact: Potatoes and sweet potatoes contain more potassium than a banana. It is, however, susceptible to rhizopus soft rot and bacterial soft rot. Our fast shipping, low prices, and outstanding customer service make WebstaurantStore the best choice to meet all of your professional and food service supply needs. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock. Many people regard the flavor of Covingtons as the best among all the sweet potato varieties available. If you love the flavor of orange sweet potatoes but dont love how mushy they get after cooking, try Bayou Belle. This belle-of-the-garden has purplish-red skin and orange flesh, and its super sugary. It is, after all, my favorite fall vegetable. Garnet is ready for harvest 110 days after planting. An early variety, Hannah matures in about 110 days. To get started, purchase a set of 12 or 25 slips from Burpee. Flavor was not the primary goal for the production of these varieties. That doesnt mean that Beauregard, jewel, and garnet sweet potatoes dont serve their purpose in all sorts of recipes, but compared to some other varieties, their flavors and textures are mild. Some youll want to mash with butter and herbs, while others are better left in chunks, roasted with hearty root vegetables. It may remind you of cotton candy. Whatever your taste, trying different kinds of sweet potatoes can be a delicious culinary experience. It seems that it became popular to call sweet potatoes yams in the US during the late 1800s. ).The most common varieties in the U.S. are the Beauregard (the most widely grown cultivar), the jewel, and the garnet (also sometimes known as red yams). This heirloom is perfect for gardeners with limited space. Best eaten within a few days of the harvest, baby potatoes are not good candidates for long-term produce storage. Hannahs are dense, firm, and creamy, and much less prone to becoming waterlogged than orange sweet potatoes. You know them, you love them and you see them at nearly all your family gatherings: We're talking about potatoes! Waxy potatoes contain very little starch and have creamy flesh with a high moisture content. Garnet sweet potatoes are high in moisture and have reddish to purplish skin with orange flesh. Jewels have a long elliptical shape, a mildly sweet taste and fairly firm texture and a lot of moisture, making them excellent all-purpose sweet potatoes. This is a good choice of vegetable to add to stews or you can roast the sweet potatoes in the oven. Sweet potatoes are native to tropical countries in Central and South America. When baked, boiled, or fried, the smooth flesh has a sweet nutty taste. The jewel sweet potato, with its copper skin and deep . New potatoes aren't actually a potato variety. The purple color comes from pigments called anthocyanins which are powerful antioxidants. Like its distant relative, the potato (Solanum tuberosum),I. batatas are rich in nutrients. Serving Size: 1 medium potato Calories: 112 It's a popular culinary choice due to its sweet, buttery flavor and unique shape. It's actually not a true yam at all. In addition to being sweet and flavorful, they retain their lovely orange hue even after baking. Roasting, frying or sauting purple sweet potatoes can help to keep that gorgeous color from bleeding out when cooking. The thick skin of a Russet crisps up while baking and the interior becomes light and fluffy, perfect for holding toppings like butter, cheese, or sour cream. Unlike most other sweet potatoes, this Japanese variety has drier flesh. You can purchase a bag of 12 slips from the Home Depot. How to Identify and Control Squash Bugs. Hannah Sweet Potatoes Jewel Yams Potato Types Potatoes can be categorized into seven different types based on their color and shape. Back in 2005, the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service released a new variety named Covington after the late Henry M. Covington, an esteemed sweet potato scientist at North Carolina State University. Although their color is similar to regular starchy potatoes, they have an oblong shape that tapers at either end. When cooked, it is sweet, creamy, moist and dense, making it an ideal candidate for soups and stews. Yukon Golds have thin gold skin that doesn't need to be peeled before mashing, and their creamy flesh has a sweet, buttery flavor. Speaking of harvest times, the number of days to maturity described below indicate the number of days to harvest after planting a slip, which is a baby plant or shoot propagated from a parent root. Many chefs consider the Kennebec potato to be the best frying potato. Theyre incredibly similar. The Japanese sweet potato has more starch than other varieties. Popular among gardeners and cooks alike, Garnet was one of the first yam-like varieties with orange flesh introduced to the US market, and it was often mislabeled as such at grocery stores in the mid-20th century. We can only reply to comments that include an email address. The skin is often purple or red with a textured, semi-rough feel and some shallow eyes. Hernandez sweet potatoes have red skin, an oval to oblong shape that tapers at one end, and moist orange flesh. If you grow Okinawan, also known as Okinawa Purple, youll harvest tan or buff-colored sweet potatoes that dont look like anything special. Hannah Sweet Potatoes SKIN - Cream colored and pretty smooth. They are full of essential vitamins and minerals that offer a variety of health benefits. Evangeline is resistant to soil rot, fusarium wilt, rhizopus soft rot, and fusarium root rot, and highly resistant to southern root-knot nematodes. Red Thumb fingerlings are not a good choice for mashing or deep frying because of their size and shape. 'Covington' matures in 95 to 110 days. These spuds are high in anthocyanins, which is the same antioxidant found in blueberries that gives both their purple hue, per the Institute of Physics (IOP). Now we have all kinds of different types, sometimes some are called yams, other. An orange variety of sweet potato similar to Puerto Ricans is the Carolina Nugget. Sumor is an early variety that matures in 110 to 120 days and features robust disease and pest resistance. Reach for this potato when you want to make baked potatoes. They have a bright golden color on the inside and a smooth texture when cooked. If youre not one for sweet, moist root veggies, try OHenry. With dry, sweet, cream-colored flesh and yellow-tan skin, OHenry is thought to be a natural mutation of Beauregard.. (Is pies a verb? You can also try them pureed or mashed for soups, stews, sauces or a simple mashed side dish. Here is more about what we do. Find out which kinds are best for mashing, roasting and more. They are generally starchy and slightly sweet, but range in shape, color and texture, each with its own unique taste profile. Jewel sweet potatoes can be cooked in a few different ways. With moderate pest and disease resistance, Korean Purple matures in about 120 to 135 days and makes a tasty, colorful sweet potato fry. Sweet potatoes are a type of root vegetable that look and taste different from regular potatoes. Theyre nontoxic and reportedly delicious! The fresh purple yam flesh is pale purple with white specks through it. From concessions, to bars, to casual restaurants, customers are always looking for good fries to complement their meals or munch on as a midnight snack. Russets have a brownish color and a sandy outer layer. This excellent cultivar matures in 100 to 120 days and makes a lovely casserole. With reddish-brown skin and deep orange flesh, this heirloom variety is a solid choice for anyone with a slightly picky eater on their hands. While white potatoes are higher in potassium, sweet potatoes provide. The Covington variety of sweet potato is particularly popular in the south. Its also resistant to rhizopus soft rot, fusarium wilt, and soil rot. The flesh of these tubers is very smooth and baked Porto Rican sweet potatoes make a tasty buttery mash. Sweet potatoes have 3 grams of fiber per 100 grams, and white potatoes have 2 grams, so their net carbs are equal to 18 grams and 19 grams, respectively. Braising these taters, or cooking them low and slow, gives them a silky texture. White sweet potatoes (like all potatoes) are considered tubers. In these countries, the orange and white flesh varieties are the most popular. Sweet potato fries, sweet potato pie or candied sweet potatoes are great ways to use O'Henrys. Both sweet and regular potatoes provide a variety of nutrients, including carbs, fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants. When cooked, Envy sweet potatoes have a mildly sweet taste and moist flesh. Many types of sweet potato from Asia have dark-colored skin and white flesh. With its copper-colored skin and dark orange flesh, Jewel is a gem, indeed. These sweet starchy root vegetables have light purple, sometimes red skin, and white flesh. Waxy potatoes are lower in starch and higher in moisture. Did you know that Vardaman, Mississippi, is the Sweet Potato Capital of the World? Hannah sweet potatoes have a shape and size similar to that of your average sweet potato, but they have more of a light brown outer layer. Instead, its a pretty sweet potato with pink skin and extremely sugary, smooth, orange flesh. Due to the smooth texture of the flesh, many chefs recommend using Hannah sweet potatoes to make sweet mash. They feel so strongly about it that it's common to see the Kennebec name called out on their menu. Covingtons pair well with savory herbs like cilantro, parsley or rosemary, warming spices such as cinnamon, cumin and curry powder, and staples like garlic, ginger and onions. Laura Ojeda Melchor grew up helping her mom in the garden in Montana, and as an adult shes brought her cold-weather gardening skills with her to her home in Alaska. These potatoes are quite small and can usually be found in different shades. You can roast sweet potatoes, use them in casseroles, or bake with them. Instead, you'll find plenty of sweet potato varieties mislabeled as yams. According to some studies, Hernandezs sweet potatoes have more sugar content than Beauregards, Covingtons, and Dianes. you kinda are. There have been entire years during which I've religiously baked two sweet potatoes every night, eating one piping-hot from the oven, and putting the other in the fridge overnight. If you slice into a French fingerling potato, you can often see some reddish streaks throughout the flesh. Good for storage, Beauregard is sweet, moist, and slightly stringy, and it makes a fabulous pie. While swapping these into recipes that call for orange sweet potatoes is a fun way to add a burst of color, their mild flavor and dense texture makes a one-for-one substitution tricky. The purple root vegetable has purple skin and purple fibrous flesh that has an earthy and slightly sweet taste. You can recognize a garnet sweet potato thanks to its dark orange-red skin, which conceals bright orange flesh. Russets are also great for mashing, as long as the skins are peeled first. One group compared the glycemic index and load of sweet potatoes vs. potatoes. These tuberous starchy roots belong to the family Convolvulaceae (morning glory) in the order Solanales. Though our site boasts some truly excellent sweet potato recipes, Ive always preferred them completely plain. Laura also writes novels and holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. There are also sweet potatoes that are grown for . Andrews finds the purple variety to have a bit of a nutty taste, so she recommends roasting purple sweet potatoes whole and sprinkling with salt, pepper and turmeric. Ube purple yams are a staple food in Asian countries and their sweet nutty taste goes well with desserts. Their skin can be shades of dark red, purple, or dark brown. Sweet potatoes can have a low, medium, or high glycemic index depending on how they're cooked and prepared. One type of sweet potato popular in the southern states in the U.S. is the White Delight variety. Even more fascinating, I. batatas are part of the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae, while true yams belong to the Dioscoreaceae family. Its also a smart pick for Northern gardeners because it matures in just 90 days, and the tubers store well. Diane sweet potatoes are one of the varieties that is often confused with yams. The flesh is vibrant purple that has a dry starchy texture. Their flesh is slightly sweet with a starchy texture that is similar to a traditional white potato but is very creamy and takes on a yellowish hue when cooked. Which ones make you the most eager to get started? The most noticeable characteristic, however, is the bright red color. Sweet potatoes are considered the world's second-most . Are you ready to meet 21 delicious varieties to grow at home? One popular type of heirloom sweet potato is Envy. This heritage sweet potato variety has light orange skin and flesh of a similar color. In the south, they're often favored for side dishes and desserts. Here are 16 different sweet spuds in a range of colors, textures, and flavors to consider as you make your favorite sweet potato recipes. Sweet potatoes have now been domesticated in many countries around the world that have a hot and humid climate. Also called Murasaki Imo, these purple potatoes from Japan have a long slender oblong shape. A mid-season semi-bush variety, this cultivar matures in 120 to 135 days. They're medium to large in size. There is also some confusion if sweet potatoes are a type of true potato. Higher in beta-carotene. Best of all, it remains firm after cooking! Nancy Hall has a storied past, too. Try using a mix of different fingerlings! French fingerlings are not as elongated in shape as your typical fingerling, but they have a dark red outer skin, similar to the Red Thumb. Keia explained that all three of the popular orange varieties I'd decided to include in this guide were designed first and foremost with production in mind. The German Butterball variety is a yellow potato with a medium round shape. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Unless you live in a tropical climate, or are cooking dishes that specifically call for them, you probably aren't encountering yams at all. Product photos via Burpee and Home Depot. Over the years we have expanded our selection of commercial equipment and wholesale supplies to include healthcare, educational, food, beverage, office, parts, hotel, shipping, and industrial supplies. They're not necessarily harvested earlier in the growing processthey're actually meant to be tiny! When cooked, Hannah sweet potatoes have a light yellow color. The creamy-white flesh of this heirloom is super-sweet, dry, and fluffy when cooked. Sweet potato skins can be in a range of colors such as pink, red, orange, creamy white, copper, and light tan. This potato has the purple skin and flesh of a blue potato and the small, slender shape of a fingerling. And no matter what kind you choose, be sure to store them properly so they lastcheck out this potato storage guide! They have tapered ends, a slight curve to the overall shape and are small to medium in size. The Louisiana State University AgCenter developed Evangeline in 2008 to taste sweeter than Beauregard and to have better nematode resistance. The Russian Banana potato is a fingerling potato that gets its name from its yellow flesh and curved, crescent-like shape. Most likely cultivated thousands of years ago from wild plants in Central or South America, the sweet potato loves warm weather. While some sweet potatoes are dense, starchy, and creamy, others are more watery when cooked, with a stringier texture. In most Spanish speaking countries, sweet potatoes are known simply as batatas. For these reasons, Garnet is best used for baking recipes, such as sweet potato pie or a casserole. White-fleshed sweet potatoes like the Hannah were some of the first to be farmed and eaten in America. Russets and Yukon golds are great go-tos for a reason: They're perfect for making loaded baked potatoes during a football game or mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. These sweet potatoes don't boast the most complex flavor, but they make up for it with plenty of sweetness. This type of sweet potato is slightly sweet with a dense, starchy texture. When cooked, Hannah sweet potatoes have a light yellow color. Each of these potato types contains countless different varieties that have been cultivated over time. Over the course of my years of near-religious sweet potato consumption, I've bought pretty much every shape and shade of sweet potato on grocery store shelves. Enter the white sweet potato. Hannah With a smooth, tan-colored skin and ivory flesh, as it cooks, the color gets more golden. Jewel is perfect for turning into chips or fries. The O'Henry sweet potato is white on the inside like a regular potato, with thin, pale, reddish or tan skin. (2). Heart OGold (or Heartogold) makes an excellent fry or chip, and it lends itself well to baking, mashing, and roasting, too. Orange sweet potatoes have more moisture, are orange-fleshed, and very sweet. I grew up with vegetarian parents, so I can comfortably go decent stretches of time without meat. Russian Banana fingerlings are not the best candidates for making mashed potatoes or deep frying. If you buy from one of our links,we may earn a commission. This makes Creamsicles a good choice in the kitchen to make fries, boil, or use in stews and casseroles. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are considered starchy vegetables given their high-carb content, which provides an energy boost. The Japanese sweet potato has a dark red color and, similar to the Hannah sweet potato, white flesh on the inside. The dense flesh holds up well during cooking and its sweet orange flesh makes delicious sweet potato wedges. So, Northern gardeners, rejoice: this heirloom is the rapidly growing type we can squeeze into our short summers and serve for fall festivities. Another type of purple sweet potato from the family Convolvulaceae is the Okinawan cultivar. The reason why these white-fleshed OHenry sweet potatoes are so popular is that they are almost as sweet as the orange varieties. I eat them cold for breakfast the next morning, by which time they've developed a wonderful custard-like texture. This has reddish-purple skin and vibrant orange sweet flesh. If I lived in a warmer hardiness zone, Id be growing Okinawan for sure. Hernandez is known for its smooth, sweet flavor and its resistance to common sweet potato problems, such as fusarium wilt, root-knot nematodes, soil rot, and internal cork. A guide to common supermarket sweet potato varieties to know and love. Use some of these in a potato salad or you could shred some to make homemade hash browns. Ree Drummond's Crash Hot Potatoes are a great example of why new potatoes are so beloved! Potatoes with a high starch content are also the best candidates for frying into french fries. That's thanks to early 20th-century Southern farmers, who began using "yam" to refer to the newer, orange-fleshed varieties of sweet potatoes they were cultivating, as a way to differentiate their product from the white-fleshed sweet potatoes Americans were already familiar with. Sometimes, this sweet potato cultivar is sold as garnet yams in the U.S. There's a place for them on almost every menu in every season, whether they're .css-1c1h30u{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#12837c;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-1c1h30u:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}mashed or roasted, served as chips or fries, or in a creamy potato salad. The skin is tan, with yellow or white flesh inside. Korean Purple has such gorgeous, jewel-toned, purple skin that you wont be able to stop staring at it. You can differentiate a German Butterball from other yellow varieties like Yukon Gold by the texture of its skin. There are a few varieties of sweet potatoes that are sold as Cordner cultivars. OHenry has similar pest and disease resistance qualities as its parent plant, Beauregard. It is resistant to streptomyces soil rot and fusarium wilt, but susceptible to root-knot nematodes. A certain family member of mine insists that only the tuberous root veggies with cream-colored flesh are real sweet potatoes. One of the quickest and easiest ways to enjoy a sweet potato is to pierce the skin with a fork and pop it in the microwave for about five minutes. Jewel potatoes are one of the most popular orange varieties of sweet potato used for baking and making casseroles. Beauregards will break down slightly when cooked, and when roasted, while they'll still hold their shape, they don't maintain the same chewy bite that other varieties do. Fingerling potato varieties can be cultivated with the same characteristics of other varieties, as displayed by the Purple Peruvian potato. MonaMakela. Creamer potatoes are a great choice for a simple roasted potato side dish for a weeknight dinner. This type stores well though it is noted as being susceptible to black rot and stem rot, so be sure to rotate your crops. Its no surprise that leafy greens are an important part of a well-balanced diet. Also, if you grow I. batata, you can eat the leaves in a salad. Try switching things up with your cookout sides and make a perfect potato salad with a bright purple potato! Color: Light brown skins, white flesh.Flavor: Sweet.Texture: Dense, firm, creamy.Best uses: Roasting, mashing. Their skin color is not an indication of the flesh color. You can purchase sets of 12 or 25 bare roots, aka slips, from Burpee. Amazing, right? Other purple potato varieties lose some of their pigment and turn a grayish color when cooked, which makes the Adirondack Blue a great choice when you want to showcase the vibrant color. The Yukon Gold potato is one of the most popular potato varieties because it falls into the all-purpose category. Some of the most popular varieties are Hannah (light brown skin and off-white flesh), Jewel (red-brown skin and dark-orange flesh), Garnet (red-purple skin and orange flesh) and Beauregard (dusty-red skin and orange flesh). Although Jerseys are sweeter than regular potatoes, they arent as sweet as many of the orange varieties of sweet potatoes. Below you'll find a list of the most popular potato types, our tips for identifying them, and suggestions for the best cooking methods. The Red Thumb potato is a fingerling potato with red skin and creamy pink flesh. Batata Pale yellow skin and white flesh. How to Select the Best Houseplant Potting Soil and Containers. The most distinctive quality of the Hannah sweet potato is that it has white flesh on the inside. Today, though theres some confusion surrounding this, it seems to also be referred to as Diane.. All the varieties recommended below grow to around this size unless I note that they are bush varieties. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the GooglePrivacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. However, true yams contain more starch and less moisture than sweet potato varieties. A mutation from a regular vine discovered at the Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Porto Rico is a bush variety, which means rather than sprawling outward, it grows upward. Vitamin B6. So, sweet potatoes are a completely different type of vegetable from potatoes. Traditionally, Korean sweet potatoes are roasted or steamed and served as a snack. COPYRIGHT 2023 ASK THE EXPERTS LLC. Lets look at some of the many types of sweet potato, starting with some of the most popular and widely consumed varieties. Purple sweet potatoes are some of the most interesting and colorful vegetables you can cook. These plump tuberous vegetables have rose to red-colored skin with succulent orange flesh. They are also denser, drier and less sweet than the previous potatoes, with a texture similar to Yukon Gold potatoes. Common firm varietals include Jersey and Hannah, as well as Hawaiian and Stokes purple sweet potatoes. With so many potato varieties to choose from, it can be difficult to match the right potato with the correct cooking method. The taste of Carolina Rubys is described as mildly sweet with delicious moist flesh. This sweet tuber has tan-colored skin and mildly sweet yellow-orange flesh. Milder flavor than sweet potatoes. In fact, many diners don't consider a meal to be complete if it doesn't include a hot baked potato. Though they can get watery, jewels and Beauregards are both excellent all-purpose sweet potatoes. This variety is more likely to be mislabeled as yams. You can purchase sets of 12 or 25 slips from Burpee. Bayou Belle has firm flesh that makes her an ideal candidate for one of my favorite side dishes of all time: sweet potato fries. However, it still has a sweet nutty taste that is common to all types of sweet potato. Purple sweet potatoes have a firm, meaty texture. So, sweet potatoes (family Convolvulaceae) are completely unrelated to yams. .css-1n3gisz{color:#12837c;display:block;font-family:Mogan,Mogan-fallback,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0.625rem;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-1n3gisz:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1n3gisz{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1n3gisz{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-1n3gisz{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1n3gisz{font-size:2.00879rem;line-height:1.1;}}This $12 Tool Makes Taco Tuesday So Much Easier, 12 Different Types of Tomatoes to Try This Season, How to Know If a Watermelon Is Ripe and Sweet, Different Types of Hot Peppers, Explained, Here's How to Tell if a Pineapple Is Ripe, How to Freeze Summer Squash and Enjoy It Longer. But if you told me right now that I could never eat another sweet potato, I dont know how Id go on living. Unlike starchy potatoes that fall apart when cooked, waxy potatoes hold their shape. There are very few foods I cant live without. Hannah Sweet Potatoes Hannah sweet potatoes are medium to large, bulbous, oblong, and cylindrical with rounded to tapered ends. The exterior absorbs oil and becomes deliciously crispy, while the interior remains fluffy. In this case, yam is just a nickname for a softer variety of sweet potato. Because they are so firm, they require longer cook times than softer, orange sweet potato varieties. If youre feeling adventurous, try this recipe for sweet potato gnocchi with sage brown butter sauce from our sister site, Foodal. The edible part of sweet potatoes is their large tubers with an oblong or oval shape that tapers to a point. While they have a softer texture, they tend to hold their shape pretty well, which makes them great for roasting and for casseroles.
