Sweet potato vs yam

Do you know the difference amongst a yam and a sweet potato? Most grocery shops provide two related-looking tubers — some labeled as yams, and some as sweet potatoes.

Would you be amazed if I informed you that all individuals instances you thought you were eating yams, you were very likely consuming a sweet potato, and that you most likely haven’t ever truly had a accurate yam? And yet yam and sweet potato do suggest different factors in grocery stores. Here’s the scoop on these tubers, with guidelines for obtaining the a single you want at the grocery store.

Although much of the confusion stems from these names currently being employed interchangeably in U.S. markets and in recipes, sweet potatoes and yams are actually two extremely different greens.

A Yam Is Possibly Not a Yam

Let’s clear up 1 extremely critical point: Sweet potatoes are not a kind of yam, and yams are not a variety of sweet potato. They are both tuberous root vegetables that come from a flowering plant, but they are not relevant and in fact don’t even have a whole lot in common.