Sweet Potato Varieties!

Candied sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, sweet potato pie...I love them all...but the sweet potatoes that I grew up eating were orange like those shown above and directly below. 

Now I'm discovering the joys of other varieties of sweet potatoes such as those that are called either Japanese or Korean sweet potatoes. They are the dark red ones in the picture below. The lighter-skinned sweet potatoes actually have purple flesh. The noodles are made from sweet potato flour. 

I made the mashed sweet potatoes, shown below, with the Japanese/Korean sweet potatoes by steaming them until soft, then using a mixer to mash them with milk or cream. These sweet potatoes were so sweet that no sugar was needed...and they were definitely not orange! 

You can see the purple sweet potatoes mashed and in cross section below. They are less sweet than the Japanese/Korean sweet potatoes, but the color is gorgeous! I added crushed pecans to these.

All of these sweet potatoes are similar...but there are  differences in their tastes and most importantly in their nutritional values. Whole Foods has an interesting discussion of the nutritional benefits of sweet potatoes.  Interesting facts about purple sweet potatoes can be found at Science News.