Hillsborough, North Carolina, cookbook author April McGreger wants to settle the confusion about yams and sweet potatoes.

First, McGreger says, they are not the same vegetable. Sweet potatoes are grown in the U.S. Yams are a tropical plant, grown in Africa and Asia, and they look much different from sweet potatoes.

“Unless it’s buff-colored, the size of a football and hairy, it is a sweet potato,” said McGreger, who has just published her first cookbook, “Sweet Potatoes,” part of the UNC-Press Savor the South cookbook series.

McGreger, 38, knows her sweet potatoes. She grew up in Vardaman, Mississippi, self-described Sweet Potato Capital of the United States. (Take that North Carolina!) She was never crowned Miss Sweet Potato, but her brother and father are or have been sweet potato farmers. (Triangle residents may know McGreger for her artisan pickles and preserves sold under the Farmer’s Daughter Brand at local farmers markets and stores.)

So why do folks get yams and sweet potatoes mixed up? “Yam is a vernacular term for sweet potato,” McGreger said.

When West Africans were forced into slavery and brought to the U.S., they were familiar with yams, and sweet potatoes were the only comparable substitute in the New World. Hence, sweet potatoes became called by the same name.

The yam misnomer became further entrenched in the 1930s when the U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed Louisiana farmers to market their sweet potatoes as yams.

With sweet potato casseroles and pies enjoyed on Thanksgiving tables, McGreger wants home cooks to know that sweet potatoes lend themselves to savory dishes as well. “Anything you can make with potatoes, you can make with sweet potatoes,” she said.

Try sweet potato latkes, sweet potato hash browns or even sweet potato fries, she suggested. Among the 50 recipes in her cookbook are roasted sweet potato with crispy kale, sweet potato chile rellenos and sweet potato hummus.

Here‘s one key tip from McGreger: Buy dirty sweet potatoes. Unwashed, cured sweet potatoes, which are more likely to be found at local farmers markets, will keep for months in a cool, dark place that doesn’t get below 55 degrees. But those washed sweet potatoes sold at the grocery store will only last a few weeks.


Roasted sweet potatoes and crispy kale

From “Sweet Potatoes: A Savor the South Cookbook,” by April McGreger (UNC Press, 2014).

● 3 medium sweet potatoes, about 700 grams, preferably slender, unpeeled and scrubbed

● 4 shallots, sliced in half lengthwise

● 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

● 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

● 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

● Big pinch of cumin

● Pinch of cinnamon

● Pinch of crushed red pepper

● 2 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar

● 1 teaspoon brown sugar

● 1 bunch of curly or red Russian kale, washed and torn into 5-8 cm pieces, thick stems discarded

● 2 garlic cloves, sliced lengthwise

● Lemon wedges

● Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Line a baking sheet with parchment. With a chef’s knife (large), slice the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and cut each half in half crosswise. Cut each quarter into wedges 5-10 cm long and about 2 cm thick. Try to keep the thickness fairly uniform.

Place sweet potatoes in a medium bowl with shallots and toss with the olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, crushed red pepper, vinegar and brown sugar.

Spread wedges out on the baking sheet and roast until the larger pieces are tender when pierced with a sharp paring knife, about 35 minutes. After 20 minutes, flip any that are getting too brown on the edges.

While sweet potatoes are cooking, place kale in the same bowl the sweet potatoes were in, along with sliced garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper. Do not toss yet.

When sweet potatoes are tender, remove baking sheet from the oven and turn oven temperature to 150 C.

Toss kale mixture with oil left in the bowl from sweet potatoes, adding another teaspoon if necessary to coat evenly. Spread kale out over the sweet potatoes on the baking sheet. Return to the oven and bake until kale is crisp, another 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a platter and serve hot, warm or at room temperature with lemon wedges.

Yield: 4-6 servings.

(Tribune Content Agency)