By Dani-elle Reiljan.
You say potato, I say pottato!
Batata, kumara, taters, spuds, tubers, wedges, chips…
We’ve all been down to our local bowls club on a Sunday afternoon for some barefoot bowls and a glass of the house Chardonnay and been asked, ‘Do you want chips and salad or veggies and mash with that?’
‘Can’t I have chips and veggies?’ and we get the rolled eyes from Shazza on the other side of the counter in response, then she purses her lips and tilts her head back with her nose in the air and passes your order over to the Chef.
Walking back to your seat, you wonder what she might have done if you asked for the sweet potato fries with the veggies instead of chips.
What would be the big deal really…they are both potatoes, both cut the same and fried the same…right?
Although the kumara (sweet potato) might be up there when it comes to choosing your chips, the orange spud may not hold the same value when we're talking mashed or boiled potatoes.
Both vegetables can be good for your health, but differ in terms of their nutritional content.
Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C, B6 and higher in potassium, but lower in fibre than kumara.
Sweet potatoes are also a good source of vitamin C, potassium, rich in beta-carotene (good for eye health) and vitamin A. They are also less likely to make your blood sugar level spike.
What did the sweet potato say to the boiling mad potato? ‘Stop being so salty!’
You might not think you really care that much about potatoes, but if you think about how many times you consider them for your dinner, they are important staples to many of our homemade recipes. Don’t get me started on gnocchi!
Scandinavian families have a long-standing love affair with potatoes, incorporating them into almost every meal. Not only are they a great source of vitamins, but they're also a cost-effective way to keep hunger at bay during the long, harsh Winters.
Plus, potatoes can be stored in large quantities at home, making them a reliable staple for any household.
If you’re the type of consumer who likes to know about the ‘crop-to-plate’ journey, you might be interested as to how these two competitors stack up.
Let me tell you a couple of potato fun facts! The first one is that regular spuds are quite the overachiever and start growing in the Summer, managing to form tubers and are ready for harvest around 12 weeks.
If you have a sheltered garden in the southern parts of Australia, you might be able to pull off this trick - just make sure your potatoes don't get too big for their britches!
Secondly, sweet potatoes prefer to spend a little more time working on their beauty sleep. Their vines and foliage die back - that’s a sign that they're ready for harvest.
This usually takes about 16-18 weeks from planting, although in cooler climates, they might stay in the comfort of the ground a little longer. When it's time to dig up those sweet tubers, be sure to loosen the soil with a garden fork - but be careful not to wake them suddenly, you’d want to keep them nice and sweet.
Finally, there’s the taste of the two to consider - pairing your sweet potato with a meal that holds some spice or sour sauces could be more enticing than those classic meals like Shepherd’s pie, where the old faithful white spud, when mashed with the right amount of milk and butter, never disappoints.
It might still be trendy to order sweet potato fries instead of regular fries, but at the end of the day, are they ever really enough to satisfy our fussy tastebuds?
Whether you like them mashed, boiled, baked, tossed in a potato salad, flavoured in a jacket potato or seasoned as chips – there’s no beating everyone’s favourite vegetable!
