Potato (including sweet potato) is the current ingredient for The CookingBites Recipe Challenge. Here are a few potato facts...
Potatoes and sweet potatoes are both called “potatoes”. They both originated in Central and South America and have since spread throughout the world. Yet, botanically, potatoes and sweet potatoes are completely unrelated.
Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) are in the Solanaceae family, related to tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant along with deadly nightshade. Plants in this family produce solanine, which is poisonous. So don’t eat the leaves or stems of any plant in this group. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are in the Convolvulaceae family with flowering morning glory vines. To me, this is interesting because despite my screen name I really don't like sweet potatoes! It seems, you can also eat the leaves of sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are a little lower in calories and carbs than potatoes. But they are much higher in sugar content. So the jury is out as to which are better for you.
There are about 4,000 known varieties of potatoes (with about 3,000 in the Andes alone) and about 5,000 varieties of sweet potatoes grown worldwide. If you are lucky, in the UK you may find five or six different types of potatoes - a tiny fraction of the varieties.
What kind of potatoes do you prefer? What type are available where you live? And most importantly - please submit your recipes featuring potatoes as an ingredient to The CookingBites Recipe Challenge!
Sources: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/regular-vs-sweet-potatoes; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato;
http://www.history-magazine.com/potato.html
Potatoes and sweet potatoes are both called “potatoes”. They both originated in Central and South America and have since spread throughout the world. Yet, botanically, potatoes and sweet potatoes are completely unrelated.
Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) are in the Solanaceae family, related to tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant along with deadly nightshade. Plants in this family produce solanine, which is poisonous. So don’t eat the leaves or stems of any plant in this group. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are in the Convolvulaceae family with flowering morning glory vines. To me, this is interesting because despite my screen name I really don't like sweet potatoes! It seems, you can also eat the leaves of sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are a little lower in calories and carbs than potatoes. But they are much higher in sugar content. So the jury is out as to which are better for you.
There are about 4,000 known varieties of potatoes (with about 3,000 in the Andes alone) and about 5,000 varieties of sweet potatoes grown worldwide. If you are lucky, in the UK you may find five or six different types of potatoes - a tiny fraction of the varieties.
What kind of potatoes do you prefer? What type are available where you live? And most importantly - please submit your recipes featuring potatoes as an ingredient to The CookingBites Recipe Challenge!
Sources: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/regular-vs-sweet-potatoes; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato;
http://www.history-magazine.com/potato.html