How to cook Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes cook more quickly than regular potatoes. They are often roasted, baked, steamed or boiled. They can also be chipped and mashed. You can chunk up sweet potatoes and add them to stews, soups or risottos, or they work very well in spicy dishes such as curries. Try them in this epic Indian-style chip butty.

WATCH: Lemon chicken & smashed sweet potato

WHAT ARE SWEET POTATOES?

Sweet potato is a tropical root vegetable from a plant family called ipomoea, which includes a popular flower called Morning Glory. The leaves and stem of sweet potato are also edible. The sweet potato is not closely related to the common potato. In fact, it belongs to an entirely different plant family.

In the United States, a traditional dish for Thanksgiving celebrations in November is sweet potatoes baked with a marshmallow topping.

An American inventor called George Washington Carver, who was born into slavery, discovered dozens of clever uses for the sweet potato, including making a glue with it to stick stamps onto letters.

Sweet potatoes can be white, red, yellow, purple or brown; but the orange-fleshed variety is the sweetest.

WHEN ARE SWEET POTATOES IN SEASON?

Sweet potatoes are at their best from October to March, but are available all year round. Look for firm sweet potatoes with unblemished skin.

HOW TO STORE SWEET POTATOES

Sweet potatoes should be stored in a cool dark place. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If the sweet potatoes start going a bit soft, then they need to be used ASAP!

READ: Why sweet potatoes are healthy

What are the health benefits?

Sweet potatoes are jam-packed with goodness! Unlike regular potatoes, a medium-sized sweet potato counts as one of your 5-a-day (one portion of veg or fruit is 80g raw weight), so using them to replace white potatoes in soups, curries and potato dishes is an easy way to up your 5-a-day count. Sweet potato is also a great source of vitamin A, which helps to keep our skin healthy and sight working properly. One 250g baked sweet potato contains more than 70% of our recommended daily vitamin C intake.