Veggie Spotlight: Yams

One aspect of eating healthy that many overlook is training your taste buds. If you are used to eating processed foods, then fresh, healthy foods are going to, at the very least, taste foreign to you. There are a lot of vegetables that I used to not like. Instead of eating these vegetables raw or by themselves, I slowly started adding them to dishes and meals (casseroles, rice pilaf, ect) I already liked to help get used to the flavor. Now I'm happy to say I can eat squash raw and find it delicious.

As I was thinking over how my taste buds have changed the past year I realized there are a lot of vegetables out there that I have never tried and resolved that every week when I go grocery shopping I will buy a vegetable that I'm not familiar with and try it. This week it was a yam.

Yams are not related to a sweet potato, but they taste a lot like a sweet potato except they are a little sweeter. There are over 150 different varieties of yams, and they are high in potassium and Vitamin B6. You can cook them almost any way you would prepare a sweet potato or regular potato. I decided to cook mine in the oven, 50 minutes at 350 degrees. What was my verdict? Way too sweet for me. I am not a fan of sweet potatoes either though. I think I would like to try them again but this time add them into a medley of roasted vegetables to distract from the extreme sweetness.

Next time you are at the grocery store and feeling bored by your choices, try something new. You never know, you may discover your new favorite food....or at least favorite vegetable. My Veggie Spotlight for next week? Fennel.

Jeweled Yams

photo courtesy of Terra Organics