Yams
Yams are known by many names including boniato, njam, nyami, djambi, yamswurzel, ņame, and igname de chine
Selection Information
Usage: Baked, boiled, steamed and candied.
Selection: Good-quality Yams will be firm and smooth-skinned. They should have few eyes, and those few eyes should be shallow. The coloring will include purple, deep-red and bright-orange.
Avoid: Avoid product that is soft, wrinkled or has cuts in the skin. Yams with white streaks or spots on the inside will be pithy.
Seasonal Information
Yams are available year-round but is mostly found cut up into chunks because they grow up to seven feet long and can weight as much as 150 pounds.
Yam Nutritional Information
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yams are very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. They're also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin C.
Yam Tips & Trivia
- There are no true "yams" commercially marketed in the United States. Product labeled as yams are really sweeter varieties of sweet potato.
- Sweet potatoes and yams come from different species of plant in the family of morning glories, originating in separate corners of the world. What we commonly eat are sweet potatoes, which are native to the American tropics. True yams, which are native to Africa, weigh between two and eight pounds and have white to yellow flesh. Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, are generally yellow to deep orange. (Source: The Washington Post, 12/88)
- You can tell the difference between yams and sweet potatoes by color. Sweet potatoes are colored similarly to true potatoes, while yams are darker and more vibrantly colored.
