Forget Valentine’s Day and Pancake Day, it’s all about our new favourite day of the month – Cook a Sweet Potato Day. Though originally only celebrated in the US, it’s now becoming more widely known across the UK, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
The vegetable itself is thought to have originated in either Central or Southern America, with remnants of the veg found in Peru from as early as 8000BC. It’s even thought that Christopher Columbus took the sweet potato back to Europe following his first voyage to America in the late 1400’s…so it clearly isn’t just us that loves them.
In terms of nutritional value, the sweet potato is full of fibre as well as containing countless vitamins and minerals including iron and calcium. According to the NHS, roughly 80g (or one medium potato), counts as one of your five-a-day – a perfect excuse to eat as much of the stuff as you can.
Whether it’s baked, boiled, steamed or fried, used in soups, salads, pies or fries, the sweet potato is undoubtedly versatile. Celebrating the humble sweet potato is long overdue in our eyes, so a day completely dedicated to this popular root vegetable is exactly what it deserves.