The Sweet Potato

The sweet potato, often incorrectly referred to as the yam, is a nutritional super food. Not only is it fat free, one cup of sweet potato contains 65 percent of our daily vitamin C requirements. That same single-cup serving provides 26 percent of our required daily fibre, and has more beta carotene than carrots, so suck on that, Bugs Bunny.

This starchy tuber also contains vitamins A, B6, riboflavin, thiamine and niacin, not to mention a whole slew of minerals, including copper, calcium, iron, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, zinc, selenium and manganese.

All that nutritional goodness probably explains why it’s such a popular baby food, but we can’t discount how great it tastes. Babies don’t lie.

The orange-fleshed sweet potato is the most common variety, but there are also yellow- and white-fleshed ones, which tend to be more firm when cooked. These firmer types were considered the crème de la crème by fancy types at one time, but are more difficult to find, unless you’re in the deep South.

Sweet potatoes can be baked, boiled, broiled, fried, microwaved, canned or frozen. My kids like baked sweet potato fries tossed in a little oil, salt and paprika, but beware, they don’t crisp up like their russet cousins. Their flavour, however, is awes-mazing, as my kids would say.

If you really want to bring out their sweetness, bake them slowly at a low temperature. To minimize the sweetness, heat them through quickly by microwaving, boiling or steaming.

Select firm, unbruised potatoes, and store them in a cool, dry location – ideally between 55 and 60 F. Do not refrigerate, which will cause a hard core that can't be corrected through cooking. They won't keep as long as regular potatoes.