Distinguishing common types of potatoes in Vietnam

Potatoes are an important food source, each type has its own characteristics and flavors, suitable for different recipes and tastes. This diversity not only enriches Vietnamese cuisine but also diversifies the source of nutrition.

Distinguishing common types of potatoes

In addition to sweet potatoes and potatoes, many other tubers are also called khoai by Vietnamese people. They are foods that provide abundant starch, and at the same time contain many valuable micronutrients, and are ingredients for many delicious dishes.

Sweet potato

Sweet potatoes come in many different colors. (Photo: Washington Post).

Sweet potatoes have a thin skin with many different colors such as purple, yellow, red, or white. The color of the potato's flesh is also very rich, people often rely on that to name the potato varieties such as white sweet potatoes, yellow sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are typically sweet, soft, and flavorful. They are packed with nutrients like vitamins A, C, and antioxidants. Sweet potatoes can be baked, boiled, fried, stewed, or used in cakes.

Potato

Potatoes are a familiar food in daily meals. (Photo: Allrecipes).

Potatoes have a thin, smooth skin and yellow or white flesh, depending on the variety; the tubers vary in size, from very small to very large. Potatoes have a nutty taste, less sweet than sweet potatoes.

Potatoes are a rich source of starch and vitamin C and vitamin B6. Their applications are extremely wide, in addition to frying, baking, and boiling, they are also used to make soups, stews, mashed, salads, noodles, cakes, etc.

Taro

Taro is large in size, with many horizontal lines around the skin. (Photo: Destined247).

Taro tubers are large, have brown skin, and have many horizontal stripes. Based on the characteristics of the core, it can be seen that there are many types of taro such as purple taro, white taro, and yellow wax taro.

Taro is often used to make soup, stew or cakes. When cooked, taro is soft and smooth with a nutty taste. This tuber provides a lot of fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B6, folate and minerals such as magnesium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, potassium.

Taro

Taro is often used to make soup or boiled. (Photo: Mountain Farmers).

Taro is small in size, oval or round in shape, thin skin with many dark brown stripes on the outside. The flesh inside is ivory white or greenish white. Taro is chewy, has a characteristic nutty, fatty and light aroma. It is often used to cook soup, stew with meat or make taro cakes.

In addition to its high fiber and starch content, taro is also rich in calcium, iron, manganese, vitamin C, vitamin E.

Yam

Sweet potatoes have high nutritional value. (Photo: Vinmec).

Yams have a dark brown skin and light purple or white flesh. The texture of yams is usually crispy and soft. It has a rich, fatty and slightly chewy taste, and is usually not as sweet as sweet potatoes.

Yams are often cooked in soup or stewed with meat, and can be used for stir-frying or frying. This food provides a lot of sodium, potassium, vitamin C.

Yam

Yam. (Photo: Pinterest)

Yam tubers are long, have rough, hairy skin, and smooth, slightly ivory white flesh. This tuber has a slightly sweet, fragrant, chewy taste. Its nutritional composition includes many essential minerals and vitamins that humans need, such as: Vitamin C, vitamin B5, magnesium, manganese, potassium, thiamine, folate.

Yam is often used in soups, stews or boiled, baked, depending on preference.

Cassava

Cassava is a familiar tuber to Vietnamese people. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Cassava has a long stem, a rough brown skin, and white flesh. The simplest way to prepare it is to boil it with sugar or steam it with coconut milk. Cassava is also used to cook sticky rice, sweet soup, make cakes or processed into flour for many other dishes.

Arrowroot

Arrowroot tubers are the raw material for producing arrowroot vermicelli. (Photo: Vnras).

Yam is often called dong rieng because it looks like galangal but is larger. The skin is purple and the inside is white. Yam has a high fiber content, so it is very good for the digestive system, helping to improve constipation. It provides few calories, so it is also beneficial for people who want to lose weight.

Other nutrients in this tuber include vitamin B9, phosphorus, potassium, iron.

White cassava (cassava)

Arrowroot has many health benefits. (Photo: Pinterest)

White cassava tubers are long and slender, ivory yellow in color, with white flesh and lots of fiber. They have a sweet, refreshing taste, and are often boiled and eaten directly, and used to make cellophane noodles.

Ginseng

The root of the ginseng plant has the same shape as a sweet potato. (Photo: Pinterest).

Sweet potato, a famous specialty of Lao Cai, has a shape quite similar to sweet potatoes, with light yellow or white flesh. This is a tuber with a lot of water, less starch than other types of potatoes, eaten raw it will have a sweet and cool taste, boiled it is also sweet, easy to eat. Sweet potato has many health benefits such as supporting the digestive system, treating cardiovascular diseases, diabetes.