What Are White Sweet Potatoes?

If you’re like me, you enjoy experimenting with foods that are familiar enough but interesting and new in their own unique way. White sweet potatoes fit the bill.

White sweet potatoes are significantly lower in the pigment beta-carotene than orange sweet potatoes, which accounts for the extreme difference in color.

All sweet potatoes are considered generally easy to digest, and white sweet potatoes in particular are known for numerous other health benefits, including blood glucose regulation, heart health, and skin and hair health.

What Are White Sweet Potatoes?

White sweet potatoes are exactly what they sound like - sweet potatoes with white flesh instead of the orange commonly associated with sweet potatoes.

White-fleshed sweet potatoes can generally be found in two common varieties - the Cuban sweet potato, also known as a Boniato or a batata, and the second is the Japanese sweet potato, or the satsuma-imo.

Filling and delicious, versatile enough to please any palate, and the perfect pairing alongside fish or seafood, white sweet potatoes are flavorful and filling.

What Do White Sweet Potatoes Taste Like?

Along with a drier texture in their center than their orange counterparts, white sweet potatoes have a slightly different flavor profile which is quite unique.

Mild and much less sweet than the orange sweet potato, the white sweet potato is less starchy and tends to lean toward a richer, nuttier flavor that is lovely.

How To Cook With White Sweet Potatoes

White sweet potatoes can easily be boiled, mashed, baked, roasted, fried, or used as a delicious replacement for white or red potatoes in soups and stews.

Like parboiling potatoes in general or parboiling sweet potatoes specifically, you can parboil white sweet potatoes before making baked sweet potatoes.

Try our sweet potato benedict skillet recipe, our unique sweet potato tacos, our epic sweet potato nachos, or a variety of vegetarian sweet potato recipes.

While they can be used in desserts, they generally are not a good replacement for orange sweet potatoes in a traditional sweet potato pie recipe.

You can easily prepare white sweet potatoes similarly to either orange or white potatoes to make a side dish like our roasted tahini maple sweet potatoes.

Do You Need to Peel White Sweet Potatoes?

Do you need to peel white sweet potatoes? No! And this is excellent news, as the bumpy exterior can make peeling a hassle, so it's best to keep it simple.

If you’re looking to enjoy white sweet potatoes without the skin, consider using a paring knife to peel them and avoid unnecessary frustration.

With the skins left on you can easily make hasselback sweet potatoes with creamed chipotle turkey, stuffed sweet potatoes or even grilled sweet potatoes.