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Sweet potato

✨ The Orange Delight

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a plant in the Convolvulaceae family, which also includes morning glories. It is grown mainly for its enlarged storage roots, commonly called sweet potatoes, although botanically they are not tubers like those of the potato. The plant is a perennial in warm climates but is usually cultivated as an annual in regions with cooler seasons. Its long, flexible stems spread along the ground, while its leaves vary in shape depending on the variety.

The storage roots can have white, yellow, orange, pink or purple flesh and may differ greatly in size and shape. Sweet potatoes need warm temperatures and generally develop best in loose, well-drained soil. They are often propagated from shoots or stem cuttings rather than from seeds, which allows growers to reproduce desirable varieties efficiently. Sweet potatoes are usually cooked before being eaten and can be boiled, steamed, baked, roasted or mashed.

Their flavor ranges from mildly sweet to distinctly sweet, depending on the variety and cooking method. Orange-fleshed varieties are often rich in beta-carotene, which the body can convert into vitamin A, while purple-fleshed varieties contain pigments called anthocyanins. Sweet potatoes also provide dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin C and other nutrients. The leaves and young shoots are edible in many regions and may be cooked as leafy vegetables.

Unlike the green parts of the ordinary potato plant, sweet potato leaves are not known for containing significant amounts of toxic glycoalkaloids. After harvesting, the roots are often cured in warm, humid conditions for a period of time, which helps heal minor injuries and improves their keeping quality. Properly stored mature roots can remain usable for weeks or months, depending on the variety and storage conditions.

💡 Did you know?

The sweet potato is not a potato at all! Although they look alike and grow underground, they belong to very different botanical families. The sweet potato belongs to the morning glory family, those pretty bell-shaped flowers seen in gardens. So, it's a beautiful flowering plant before being a vegetable on your plate!

The orange color of the sweet potato tells us it's good for our health. This color comes from beta-carotene, the same nutrient as in carrots. Our body transforms this beta-carotene into vitamin A, which helps us have smooth skin and especially see as well as explorers, even when it starts to get dark!

The sweet potato has made an incredible journey! Christopher Columbus discovered it in America and brought it back to Europe. But the mystery is that inhabitants of the Pacific Islands, far from America, were already cultivating it long before. Some think birds or ocean currents carried the seeds, or that ancient navigators had already crossed the vast ocean!