Sweet Potato or Yam?

Sweet Potato Soup with Ginger | Photo: Kelly Hunt Thanks once again everyone for all those great comments on the last post and all the cookbook recommendations! I wanted to break in my brand new Anna Olsen cookbook (Fresh) and I decided to make one of her soups. There is a delicious recipe in the book for Sweet Potato Soup with Coconut Milk and Ginger. This got me thinking for a moment, what is the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? I knew that I had looked it up once before, but I needed a refresher course on the topic. What I found out was surprising and I thought some of you may also like to know a few of the differences between the tuber (yam) and the storage root (sweet potato). First and foremost – the sweet potato is what you will find at our farmers markets. The yam is more tropical, so it gets shipped to us from the Caribbean mostly nowadays. The sweet potato is a prehistoric beast, around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth – whereas the yam made it”s appearance around 50,000 BC. Although they look so much alike, they are very different. The sweet potato is from the morning glory family and the yam is from the nightshade family. A yam is sweeter than a sweet potato and can grow up to 154 pounds and measure up to eight feet long! Check out this picture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kiekie_yams.jpg Sweet potatoes have more beta carotene than yams, or so I am told – so they are better for you (sorry yams). If you like sweet potatoes you will love this soup. I must preface this recipe post by saying that yes, yes.. I know… coconut milk, ginger and lime? Those are not local ingredients Kelly! Yes, this is all true, but I decided that the main ingredients of this soup are all local – the onions,the chicken stock and the sweet potatoes and they make up the main. The coconut milk could very easily be substituted with local milk (although I would add it at the last moment,otherwise you risk burning your soup!). Sweet Potato Soup with Coconut Milk & Ginger From Fresh with Anna Olsen 2 tbsp butter 1 1/3 cup onion, diced (one really big onion or 2 small) 6 cups of sweet potato, peeled and cubed 3-4 cups of chicken stock 1 can (398 ml)coconut milk 2 tbsp grated ginger 2 tbsp fresh lime juice salt and pepper dash hot sauce 1/4 cup cilantro leaves Melt the butter, toss in the onions over medium heat, just until translucent. Add the sweet potatoes and 3 cups of stock (save some of the stock for later), the coconut milk and ginger. Simmer all of this for 25 minutes. Puree the mixture until smooth, stir in lime juice and add more stock if you find it too thick. Season. She serves it up with yogurt, but I just tossed the cilantro on top and it was really good all on its own. Next time (and there will be a next time!!), I am going to boost the ginger way up in this recipe. It may be that I store my ginger in the freezer and it lost some of its zing, or I did not add as much as I thought I did, but I think it could use more ginger. This is a delicious soup that I will make again and again.. go Anna!  Read More