Where Can I Buy Okinawan Sweet Potato?

You can find tasty Okinawan Sweet Potatoes at www.hawaiifsp.com. They ship nationwide for free!

What are Okinawan sweet potatoes called?

Chef’s Notes – Okinawa sweet potatoes, also called purple sweet potatoes, are available at some Asian-food markets, farmers’ markets, or online.

Where are purple sweet potatoes sold?

?️ Additional Notes –

• Whole Foods is the best and most reliable place to get purple sweet potatoes – they are organic too.
• Trader Joe’s and ALDI only have medley bags that include purple.
• Sam’s Club and Costco are not likely places to carry them. Never seen them at either.
• You can sometimes find organic purple potatoes. Central Market stores in Texas carry them.
• I have not found them consistently at any Kroger owned stores. And if I do see them they are in small bags.
• If you want to order them online look up Specialty Produce or Melissa’s produce.

Are all purple sweet potatoes Okinawan?

The tubers taper to points on both ends and are members of the Ipomoea genus, just like other sweet potatoes (yams are of the genus Dioscorea). There are two main varieties—Okinawa (white skin) and Stokes (purple skin) —though they share the characteristic of having a deep purple flesh.

Is Okinawan sweet potato same as ube?

What is Ube? – Deenida /Shutterstock For the uninitiated, ube (pronounced ooh-bae) is a purple yam that is a staple in Filipino desserts. A relative of sweet potato, yuca, and taro root, ube has dark, purple skin and vibrant purple inside. Ube’s flavor is incomparable to the orange yams that we are familiar with in the United States.

While yams are moister than sweet potatoes, which they are often mistaken for, ube has been described as being a gentle mix of sweet and nutty — kind of like white chocolate combined with pistachio. While ube is new and exciting in the United States for its ability to make any dessert Instagram-worthy with its bright purple color, it has long been used as in ingredient in Filipino desserts.

Ube is very similar to Okinawan sweet potato (which is actually native to the United States) — both have the same color skin (though some Okinawan sweet potatoes have light-colored skin) and a bright purple flesh, but ube tend to have darker skin. The other difference is that some Okinawan sweet potatoes will have a lavender-colored inside, but many of them are dark purple, ube.

1. Okinawan sweet potatoes also have a mildly sweet flavor with slightly nutty notes that makes them great for using in desserts, so technically, they could probably be used interchangeably.
2. The biggest difference is in the way that they grow.
3. Ube grow above ground on vines while Okinawan sweet potatoes grow underground, like a potato.

In terms of nutrition, ube is a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium. One study conducted by Kansas State University revealed that ube have a highest antioxidant content than other sweet potatoes.

Is Okinawan sweet potato healthy?

Did you know that Okinawan sweet potatoes were recently highlighted by Dr. Oz as being one of the top Superfoods of 2010? 1 This vibrantly purple sweet potato, a locally grown staple of Hawaiian cuisine, is rich in flavor and packed with nutritional benefits.

1. With Okinawan sweet potatoes in abundance this time of year, they make the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving meal.
2. The Okinawan sweet potato is not related to the potato but is actually in the morning glory family.
3. Native to the Americas, it was brought to Japan sometime between 1492 and 1605.
4. The hardy plant grew well in Japan and quickly became popular in a variety of Japanese dishes.2 When it eventually made its way to the Hawaiian Islands, brought by the Polynesians, the crop flourished in the rich volcanic soil.3 Sweet potatoes of all varieties are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and manganese.

They are also a good source of copper, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, potassium and iron. Sweet potatoes are known to improve blood sugar regulation and some studies have discovered significant antibacterial and antifungal properties. The primary nutritional benefit, and the one for which Okinawan sweet potatoes are especially prized, is their high antioxidant levels.4 The antioxidant known as anthocyanin is the pigment which is responsible for the brilliant purple color of the flesh.

It is the same pigment that gives blueberries, red grapes and red cabbage their color.5 Blueberries are well known for their high antioxidant levels, however, the Okinawan sweet potato actually has 150 percent more antioxidants than blueberries.6 Antioxidants help to guard against cardiovascular disease and cancer.

How nice to find out that such a creamy and delicious vegetable, a staple in many Hawaiian homes, is so nutritious as well! Add a splash of color and a healthy dose of antioxidants to your Thanksgiving table. One easy way is to substitute regular potatoes with Okinawan sweet potatoes when making mashed potatoes this holiday season.

Where are purple sweet potatoes grown?

Demystifying different types of purple sweet potatoes, one tuber at a time! – Updated March 30, 2020 There is no doubt that purple sweet potatoes have gained popularity—just open the pages of Eating Well, Martha Stewart Living, The Washington Post and O, The Oprah Magazine, Even journalist Dan Buettner, author of Blue Zones, credits these purple beauties with being part of the diet and lifestyle that has propelled the longevity of the centenarian Okinawa population.

1. But not all varieties of purple sweet potatoes are created equal.
2. The four main types of purple-fleshed sweet potatoes consumed in the U.S.
3. Are Stokes Purple® sweet potatoes, Okinawan sweet potatoes, Murasaki sweet potatoes and Charleston sweet potatoes.
4. Ube (pronounced OO-beh) is available in concentrate form only, not as a fresh potato.

Shoppers and foodies alike often confuse these varieties based on skin color, flesh color, different names and even incorrect internet images. Take a look at what makes each variety different. Stokes Purple ® Sweet Potatoes Born in the U.S.A., Stokes Purple ® sweet potatoes originated in Stokes County, North Carolina.

Why are purple sweet potatoes good for you?

Health Benefits – Vitamins and minerals in sweet potatoes make them a healthy choice at mealtime. Orange sweet potatoes, for example, are one of the richest sources of beta-carotene, a carotenoid known for its eye health benefits and ability to reduce cancer risks.

Purple sweet potatoes are a good source of beta-carotene but are an even richer source of anthocyanin pigments, which act as antioxidants that can help reduce inflammation and boost your immune system. Purple sweet potatoes have about three times more anthocyanins than the average blueberry. In addition, sweet potatoes provide you with health benefits such as: Gastrointestinal Health Along with anti-inflammatory properties, sweet potatoes have plenty of gut-friendly fiber.

They are a mixture of soluble fiber, which can lower cholesterol and balance glucose, and insoluble fiber, which helps keep your bowels healthy and regular. With about 6 grams of fiber in one cup of cooked sweet potato, this root vegetable already gives you 26% of your recommended daily intake.

• Sweet potatoes are also a good source of prebiotics like oligosaccharides, which help improve the balance of your gut bacteria and overall gut health.
• Immune Support Vitamin A (beta-carotene) and vitamin C are two of the strongest antioxidant vitamins, and they’re both in rich supply in sweet potatoes.

While all sweet potatoes contain vitamin A, the orange variety has substantially more of it. Beta-carotene and vitamin C help regulate your immune system and boost your body’s natural protection against infections. Heavy-Metal Protection Orange-red to purple-fleshed sweet potatoes are rich in cyanidins and peonidins, two of the anthocyanin pigments with antioxidant properties.

These antioxidants can help reduce the risk of toxicity from heavy-metal residues. Arsenic, cadmium, and mercury are the three most common metals likely to be present in the foods you eat, and eating sweet potatoes can help support your digestive system, More Balanced Blood Sugar Sweet potatoes have a number of natural sugars, but even though they’re considered to be in the medium range of the glycemic index — a way of comparing the carbohydrates in foods that affect blood sugar — they have a lot of fiber that naturally slows down sugar absorption into the bloodstream.

There are ways to prepare sweet potatoes that can lower their glycemic load, like boiling or steaming them. These are safer options if you are diabetic or otherwise need to watch your sugar intake.

Is Ube sweet potato?

What is ube? – Ube is a starchy vegetable also known as purple yam — which is not the same as purple sweet potatoes, though they are similar and can be substituted in recipes. Yams, for one, grow on vines, while sweet potatoes grow underground. Ube is often confused with Stokes Purple sweet potatoes or Okinawan sweet potatoes. Ube is a starchy vegetable also known as purple yam — not to be confused with the purple sweet potato. DigiPub / Getty Images Ube has stunningly bright purple flesh and a sweet, nutty flavor with hints of vanilla and pistachio, which is why it’s long been a central ingredient in Filipino desserts and some savory dishes.

1. Additionally, ube is as nutritious as it is delicious (although ube desserts are still desserts with plenty of sugar and cream).
2. Ube is high in vitamin C, antioxidants and resistant starch, making it a great prebiotic,
3. Ube is grown in abundance in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, holding a special place at the table in Filipino households.

It’s rare to find fresh ube in the U.S., but you can find frozen, grated ube at Filipino markets and some pan-Asian grocery stores. Ube may also be confused with taro, a starchy, brown-skinned root vegetable. The flesh of taro is typically more white with purple specks, as opposed to the deep purple flesh that ube presents.

Is a Japanese sweet potato the same as a purple sweet potato?

Japanese sweet potatoes are also different from Okinawan sweet potatoes (also known as purple sweet potatoes), which have light brown skin and purple flesh.

What do Okinawan sweet potatoes taste like?

Okinawan and Molokai Sweet Potatoes – Okinawa Purple Sweet Potato and Molokai Purple Sweet Potato side beside on white background with blue sticky note labels Credit: Blaine Moats/Meredith Today, Hawaii boasts two popular purple sweet potato varieties: Okinawan and Molokai. Okinawan sweet potatoes are believed to have originally come from the Aztecs. The Spaniards then brought them to the Philippines, and then to China in the 1490s.

Sometime during the 1600s, the potatoes made their way to Okinawa, the southern island of Japan. Okinawan sweet potatoes were soon cultivated throughout the country and eventually made their way to Hawaii. Today, Okinawan sweet potatoes, sometimes known as Hawaiian Sweet Potatoes, are a part of the native menu in Hawaii,

Okinawan sweet potatoes have beige outer skin and deep, blue-purple flesh. They have a mildly sweet flavor, and a very dry, starchy texture. The Molokai variety, like the Stokes Purple®, is a relatively new development. These deep purple sweet potatoes were developed by the Decoite family of Molokai, Hawaii in 1978.

Are Murasaki sweet potatoes healthy?

Nutritional Value – Murasaki sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A, and a good source of potassium, dietary fiber, and vitamin C. They also contain iron, calcium, protein, and beneficial amino acids.

Is taro the same as Okinawan sweet potato?

Throughout Asia—from the Philippines to Japan to Taiwan—purple starches have been kitchen staples for centuries, featured in everything from warm tapioca dessert soups to sausage-flecked curries. While the traditional orange American sweet potato has a headstrong vegetal sweetness that is often bolstered with piles of marshmallows or countered with hearty turkey gravies, many of these purple starches from Asia have a light sweetness that allows the violet-shaded veg to move nimbly between sweet and savory.

Though often generically labeled “purple sweet potato” in the United States, roots like taro, yams like ube, and Okinawan sweet potatoes arrive from totally different plants and totally different parts of the globe. And each carries a distinct flavor. Taro, one of the most popular purple starches, is not particularly purple in hue; the “corm” bulb used most often in taro cooking looks almost like a coconut, mid-brown and downy, and the insides range from pure white to a light lavender.

More often, taro-flavored foods and drinks have a little food coloring added for identifying effect. The texture inside is almost chalky, but like all starches, it breaks down through boiling and mashing and is lightly sweet. Taro powders, used sometimes in baking and in taro milk teas, are both sweeter and more purple than the root itself.

Taro, which can be traced back to India and Malaysia, spread north to plant roots in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan by about 100 B.C. It serves as a dominant flavor in East Asian baking, boba teas, and as a filling and flavoring in flaky puff pastries and chewy buns—and also as a powdered flavor mix for creamy milk, and steamed in chunks with pork shoulder or fatty Chinese sausages in fried rice flour cakes found on dim sum tables.

Sometimes it’s served in a hot coconut milk–based soup with tapioca pearls after meals at Asian restaurants. Ube is extremely popular in the Philippines and Hawaii and is almost exclusively used in desserts. The flavor is similar to white chocolate or pistachio. Ube ice cream in halo-halo Meanwhile, Okinawan sweet potatoes are the only starch of the bunch that are actually technically sweet potatoes.

Are Japanese sweet potatoes as healthy as regular sweet potatoes?

Can Japanese sweet potatoes take the place of a plastic surgeon? Actor Olivia Munn thinks so. Perhaps looking to deflect recent speculation that she’s had cosmetic work done, the “X-Men: Apocalypse” star took to Instagram Tuesday to reveal the secret behind her radical change of appearance,

1. Japanese potatoes help keep wrinkles away,” she wrote.
2. Munn has said she eats a baked one every day.
3. The purple tuber, known as satsuma-imo, is similar to a regular sweet potato, high in antioxidants and healthier than a white potato.
4. The satsuma-imo trumps the Idaho white with fewer carbs (24 grams vs.37 grams) and calories (113 vs.170).

But a beauty secret? “I don’t think they have anything magical about them,” says Lisa Moskovitz, registered dietician and CEO of the NY Nutrition Group, “If you ate a lot of other things, you’d be getting the same benefits.” Wrinkles are also the result of many factors not related to diet, including stress and lifestyle, Moskovitz says.

What is ube called in English?

Ube The plant that bears ube has the scientific name Dioscorea alata. It has heart-shaped leaves. Ube is also known in English as water yam or winged yam.

What is the purple sweet potato called?

Okinawan and Molokai Sweet Potatoes – Okinawa Purple Sweet Potato and Molokai Purple Sweet Potato side beside on white background with blue sticky note labels Credit: Blaine Moats/Meredith Today, Hawaii boasts two popular purple sweet potato varieties: Okinawan and Molokai. Okinawan sweet potatoes are believed to have originally come from the Aztecs. The Spaniards then brought them to the Philippines, and then to China in the 1490s.

Sometime during the 1600s, the potatoes made their way to Okinawa, the southern island of Japan. Okinawan sweet potatoes were soon cultivated throughout the country and eventually made their way to Hawaii. Today, Okinawan sweet potatoes, sometimes known as Hawaiian Sweet Potatoes, are a part of the native menu in Hawaii,

Okinawan sweet potatoes have beige outer skin and deep, blue-purple flesh. They have a mildly sweet flavor, and a very dry, starchy texture. The Molokai variety, like the Stokes Purple®, is a relatively new development. These deep purple sweet potatoes were developed by the Decoite family of Molokai, Hawaii in 1978.

Is ube and purple sweet potato the same?

What is ube? – Ube is a starchy vegetable also known as purple yam — which is not the same as purple sweet potatoes, though they are similar and can be substituted in recipes. Yams, for one, grow on vines, while sweet potatoes grow underground. Ube is often confused with Stokes Purple sweet potatoes or Okinawan sweet potatoes. Ube is a starchy vegetable also known as purple yam — not to be confused with the purple sweet potato. DigiPub / Getty Images Ube has stunningly bright purple flesh and a sweet, nutty flavor with hints of vanilla and pistachio, which is why it’s long been a central ingredient in Filipino desserts and some savory dishes.

• Additionally, ube is as nutritious as it is delicious (although ube desserts are still desserts with plenty of sugar and cream).
• Ube is high in vitamin C, antioxidants and resistant starch, making it a great prebiotic,
• Ube is grown in abundance in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, holding a special place at the table in Filipino households.

It’s rare to find fresh ube in the U.S., but you can find frozen, grated ube at Filipino markets and some pan-Asian grocery stores. Ube may also be confused with taro, a starchy, brown-skinned root vegetable. The flesh of taro is typically more white with purple specks, as opposed to the deep purple flesh that ube presents.

Is Beni imo the same as ube?

Beni Imo – Beni imo, otherwise known as purple sweet potato, is the only one of the three that is actually a sweet potato. It is often confused for ube because of its flesh is a similar color. However, beni imo are light-skinned on the outside while ube are dark-skinned.

1. Beni imo is a staple agricultural produce in Japan’s southernmost island of Okinawa and in Hawaiian cuisine, beni imo has made its way into traditional desserts like sweet potato pie.
2. Beni imo is labeled as a superfood as it contains anti-aging and anti-oxidant properties and many nutrients and minerals.

You can prepare beni imo the same way as you would any potato but it is most commonly used in baking and desserts. About the author: Samantha Kwok Samantha is currently a 5th-year JET in Okinawa, originally from Hawaii. She has been somewhat connected to Japanese culture her whole life despite being Chinese American. She’s had the privilege of traveling to Japan and experiencing Japanese culture at a young age.

Are purple sweet potatoes the same as Japanese sweet potatoes?

Japanese sweet potatoes are also different from Okinawan sweet potatoes (also known as purple sweet potatoes), which have light brown skin and purple flesh.