Purple yam is used in a variety of desserts, as well as a flavor for ice cream, milk, Swiss rolls, tarts, cookies, cakes, and other pastries. In the Philippines, it is eaten as a sweetened dessert or jam called ube halaya and added as an ingredient in the ice dessert called halo-halo. In Maharashtra, the stir-fried chips are eaten during religious fasting. Purple yam is also an essential ingredient in Undhiyu.
Category Roots & Tubers
Yam (Dioscorea spp.)
Yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius)
The Yacón is a perennial plant grown in the Andes of Perú for its crisp, sweet-tasting tubers. The texture and flavour are very similar to jicama mainly differing in that yacon has some slightly sweet resinous and floral (similar to violet) undertones to its flavor. This flavoring is probably due to a sweet substance called inulin, as replicates the sweet taste found in the roots of elecampane, which also contains this substance. Another name for the yacón is Peruvian ground apple. The tuber is composed mostly of water and fructo-oligosaccharides.
Water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis)
The Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis; synonyms E. equisetina, E. indica, E. plantaginea, E. plantaginoides, E. tuberosa, E. tumida), more often called simply the water chestnut, is a grass-like sedge grown for its edible corms. The water chestnut is actually not a nut at all, but an aquatic vegetable that grows in marshes, underwater in the mud. It has tube-shaped, leafless green stems that grow to about 1.5 metres. The water caltrop, which is also referred to by the same name, is unrelated and often confused with the water chestnut.
Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus)
Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus) is a plant grown primarily as a root vegetable, secondarily as a leaf vegetable.
Tigernut (Cyperus esculentus)
Cyperus esculentus (chufa sedge, yellow nutsedge, tigernut sedge, earth almond) is a species of sedge native to warm temperate to subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, often cultivated for its edible tubers (tigernuts). It is an annual or perennial plant, growing to 90 cm tall, with solitary stems growing from a tuber. The stems are triangular in section, and bear slender leaves 3–10 mm wide. The flowers of the plant are distinctive, with a cluster of flat oval seeds surrounded by four hanging, leaf-like bracts positioned 90 degrees from each other. The plant foliage is very tough and fibrous, and is often mistaken for a grass.
Ti (Cordyline fruticosa)
Cordyline fruticosa is an evergreen flowering plant in the Asparagus family, Asparagaceae, known by a wide variety of common names including Cabbage Palm, Good Luck Plant, Palm Lily, Ti Plant, Kī, La’i (Hawaiian), Tī Pore (Māori), Sī (Tongan), “Lauti” (Samoan), and ʻAutī (Tahitian ).
Taro (Colocasia esculenta)
Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the ‘dasheen’ form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.
Sweet Potato or Kumara (Ipomoea batatas)
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of Convolvulaceae, I. batatas is the only crop plant of major importance—some others are used locally, but many are actually poisonous.
Skirret (Sium sisarum)
Sium sisarum (Skirret, Crummock) is a perennial plant of the family Apiaceae sometimes grown as a root vegetable. It has a cluster of sweet, bright white roots which are similar to sweet potatoes, but longer (15-20 cm). Skirrets may be boiled, stewed, or roasted. The woody core is inedible, and should be removed before cooking because it is difficult to remove after.