Sweet Potatoes vs Yams and a Recipe!

Are you confused?

For most people, I guess the only time you might have a hard time with figuring out the difference between these two would be at Thanksgiving or Christmas. But I am going to shed some light on these babies because many of you got them in your Bountiful Baskets this week and have no idea what to do with them.

First we will go over which is which.

Both sweet potatoes and yams are tubers.

tu·ber noun /ˈt(y)o͞obər/  tubers, plural A much thickened underground part of a stem or rhizome, e.g., in the potato, serving as a food reserve and bearing buds from which new plants arise

Sweet potatoes are long and a pale yellow/white color. They resemble more of a potato and are very starchy. They are somewhat sweet.

Yams are basically just an orange version of the white sweet potato. They are more fleshy and aren't as starchy. They tend to be what we are more familiar with seeing and are much sweeter. They are commonly called sweet potatoes because...they just are.

Actual yams are indigenous to South America and the West Indies. They look more like ginger roots or a jerusalem artichoke if you've ever seen one of those. They're pretty rugged looking.

Okay...so now you know the difference yes? kind of?

Lets just say if you're going to make a sweet potato casserole by the orange ones!

Now how to prepare them. We are working with the sweet potatoes (white ones) today.

Not the yams.

We will be roasting them. Roasting is a good thing.

I think roasting any vegetable really brings out its flavor. This is a really easy recipe I've created in which they are cooked with a different assortment of peppers and chilies. Super good. We had this along side my bacon wrapped meatloaf. It worked perfect. I usually make this with yukon gold potatoes so I thought this might work for these tubers as well.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Peppers and Chilies

Serves aprox 4

5 white sweet potatoes (depending on the size of your potatoes, mine were pretty small)

1 red pepper

1 pablano pepper

1 hatch chili

1-2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

2 Tbs olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

dash or two of season salt ( use a cajun blend)

preheat oven to 385

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Set aside.

Peel sweet potatoes and chop in half and then into thirds. Place in a bowl. Clean peppers and chilies and chop into large chunks and add to the bowl. Chop the rosemary up and toss in the bowl as well. Drizzle the items in the bowl with the olive oil and then add your salt and season salt. I toss it well with my hands and then scatter it across the cookie sheet and cook in the oven until the sweet potatoes are tender when poked with a fork. about 30 mins or so. It might take longer in your oven.

And...you are done. Super easy!

Tips:

Use fresh rosemary. If you use dried it will taste like dried up pine needles have mysteriously landed in your dish.

Using peppers and chilies really works well in this dish. They give a sweet spicy kick along side their side kicks. I know some people are adverse to them. But try it...you just never know. You can change up the peppers and pretty much get the same results but this combination works great. If you can't find hatch chilies, you can use anahiem chilies instead and they are readily available.

I would say leave me a comment if you make them but you won't and will just call or text me...so I won't bother.

Have fun!

xoxo

Heidi