Check out Instagram and you’ll find more than 1.5m baked, mashed, sliced and stuffed creations using this fluffy, creamy veggie. 

Now it’s International Sweet Potato Week brought to you by the American Sweet Potato Marketing Institute.

Bake them, fry them, mash them or squash them. Sweet pota-toast them. Make spoodles, try swaffles, spiralize some swagliatelle… The possibilities are endless, and they’re good for you too.

Here are some great recipes to savour –  Spicy Thai Sweet Potato Curry and Sweet Potato and Courgette Bake

Serves: 4

Prep time: 20 mins

Ingredients

2 American sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 head of broccoli

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 onion, cut into quarters

1 tbsp yellow thai curry paste

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 cm fresh ginger, in thinly sliced

1 red pepper, cut into narrow rings

200 ml coconut milk

400 ml vegetable stock

1 stalk lemongrass, roughly chopped

Pinch of salt

Juice of half a lime

Handful fresh coriander, chopped

Method

• Steam or blanch the broccoli until al dente, then rinse with cold water.
• Dry the broccoli and lightly char in a very hot pan and set aside.
• Heat the coconut oil in a large wok or frying pan and brown the sweet potato cubes.
• Add the onion and fry for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the curry paste and stir well. Add the garlic, ginger and pepper and stir gently.
• Next, add the coconut milk, stock and lemongrass and bring to a gentle simmer for around 10 minutes.
• Add the broccoli to the pan and season with a pinch of salt.
• Split the curry between four plates, sprinkle with the lime juice over the plates, and scatter over the fresh coriander.
• Serve with fragrant Thai rice.

Serves: 2

Prep time: 90 mins

Ingredients

3 American sweet potatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

150ml water

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 courgette     

3 sprigs of thyme, with the stalks removed

150g pecorino cheese

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
• Peel one of the sweet potatoes and chop into small pieces.
• Sautee the sweet potato chunks in a saucepan with 1 tbsp olive oil, the onion, garlic and the water until cooked through.
• Meanwhile, peel the remaining two sweet potatoes and cut into slices around half a cm thick.
• Mash the cooked sweet potato mixture until you have a smooth, creamy consistency, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Cut the courgette into slices roughly half a cm thick.
• Take a baking dish and grease with 1 tbsp olive oil, then layer the sweet potato slices and the courgette until you run out.
• Season with salt and pepper and top with the sweet potato mixture.
• Sprinkle over the thyme and pecorino, saving a little of the cheese to garnish.
• Sprinkle over the remaining olive oil and bake in the oven for around 1 hour, until a crispy topping has formed.
• Serve with a sprinkle of pecorino cheese to garnish. 

For more recipe inspiration, head to sweetpotatoes.eu/en today.