sweet potatoes
Also known as: sweet potato
A starchy root vegetable with sweet, moist flesh, usually orange but sometimes white or purple depending on the variety; roasted, baked, mashed, or fried. Despite the name, it's unrelated to the regular potato and behaves differently -- its natural sugars mean it caramelizes and can scorch faster under high heat.
Buying guidance
Choose ones that feel firm and heavy for their size with smooth, unwrinkled skin and no soft spots or sprouting. Size consistency matters when roasting several together, since pieces of uneven size finish at different times.
Substitutions
- Butternut squash -- similar sweetness and texture once roasted or mashed, though slightly less starchy.
- Regular white potato -- loses the sweetness and orange color, but a fine textural swap in mashes and roasts where the specific sweet-potato flavor isn't the point.
Tips & common mistakes
A sweet potato's dense flesh takes noticeably longer to cook through than its quick-browning sugars suggest -- the outside can look caramelized and done while the center is still firm and starchy, so cut pieces evenly and check the center with a knife rather than judging doneness by color.
Storage
Keep raw sweet potatoes at cool room temperature rather than in the refrigerator -- cold temperatures give them a hard, woody core and an odd flavor once cooked, a reaction called chilling injury. Cooked sweet potato, by contrast, refrigerates and freezes well.