Did you know there are over 400 different varieties of sweet potatoes?! Now that is A LOT of tubers if you ask me.
Sweet potatoes are so tasty and healthy with an array of vitamins and minerals. They are a great source of complex carbohydrates with the added benefit of resistant starch which feeds our good gut bugs! (Tip: let them cool overnight and consume them cold to get the max resistant starch benefit).
I have tried so many different varieties of sweet potatoes and I can honestly say they are NOT all created equally. Personally my least favorite kind are the orange ones.
Here are a few different ones I have tried & recommend:
- Stokes Purple: Purple Skin and Purple Inside, has a fudgy cakey texture
- Okinawan: White Skin and Purple Inside, cakey texture
- Ube Purple Yam: Super dark bark colored skin with purple inside, thick creamy texture that is used in many asian recipes
- Muraski/ Japanese: Red like skin, white inside, tastes like french toast with cinnamon
- Red Sweet Potato: White Inside, Brown skin, cakey texture
- Hannah aka white sweet potato: White skin and inside, gooey texture
- Batata aka West Indies sweet potato: Dark skin, white inside, cakey thick texture
Of course this is not even a quarter of all the varieties and there are many orange kinds as well (but I'm not a fan of those). Most of these can be bought at Whole Foods, Japanese specialty grocery stores and I have even seen some in Stop and Shop and Shoprite. A website with a great deal on the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes you can purchase from is Hawaii Veggie Farm! That is where I get mine from because you can buy in bulk for a cheaper price. Here is the link for that: https://www.hawaiiveggiefarm.com/
Pro Tip: If your craving unhealthy sweets or salty snacks, add some cinnamon or shredded coconut to a ooey gooey sweet potato with lots of himalayan sea salt for that salty sweet flavor and watch your craving disappear!
How many varieties have you tried and which are your favorite? I'd love to know in the comments below!