Stuffed kumara - Eat Well Recipe - NZ Herald (2024)

FAQs

What is the best kumara in New Zealand? ›

Red kumara is the most popular variety in New Zealand, with its distinctive red skin and firm white flesh. Orange kumara is the sweetest and firmest option, whereas purple kumara is the least sweet. Gold kumara has a softer texture and is sweeter than the red kumara.

Kūmara (sweet potato) has a long history of cultivation in New Zealand. Kūmara was brought here over one thousand years ago from the Pacific islands by early Maori settlers.

According to Stats NZ, average kūmara prices in January 2023 were $4.37/kg, and shot up in September 2023 to $12.98/kg. Tags: food.

Red Kumara (Owairaka) is the most recognised kumara in NZ with a distinctive red skin, a creamy white firm textured flesh.

Sweet potatoes are also known as kumara (or kumera) in New Zealand, batatas or boniatos in South America, umala by Samoans, and 'uala by Native Hawaiians. Kumara was a staple of the Maori in New Zealand prior to the arrival of Europeans, and is popular throughout the Pacific region.

Though they can both be part of a healthy diet, sweet potatoes are generally healthier than regular potatoes, partly because of their incredibly high vitamin A content. Sweet potatoes are also lower on the glycemic index, meaning that they are less likely than regular potatoes to make your blood sugar spike.

kūmara. 1. (noun) sweet potato, kūmara, Ipomoea batatas.

New Zealand yams are very different to the tropical yams grown elsewhere around the globe, and in America, recipes that call for yams refer to a sweet potato similar to our kūmara crops.

Kümera: The Maori word for sweet potato, which is still common place in New Zealand English.

Kaipara Kūmara managing director Anthony Blundell said the high prices were directly linked to severe weather which hit the region in late 2022 and early 2023. “This time last year 30 to 35% of the crop was gone, even before Cyclone Gabrielle,” he said on Friday.

What is the difference between a yam and a kumara? ›

A sweet potato is a root. Yams tend to be more cylindrical and have scaly, bark-like skin. Sweet potatoes tend to have a more tapered shape and may be firm or soft with thinner skin. Generally, sweet potatoes taste sweeter than yams.

It comes after the majority was wiped out by Cyclone Gabrielle. Kumara farmers in Northland have spent the year salvaging remains of their crops after most of them were wiped out by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The ooze is actually referred to as "sap." It is made up of sugar and starch combined with the moisture found in the vegetable, and it escapes out of the damage made from the knife. The sap really equals the sweetness. If it's pouring out of your potato, that means it's a sweet and delicious vegetable.

Eating kūmara

Small tubers were scraped, then dried in the sun to make a delicacy called kao. They were eaten raw, or soaked and mashed, or steamed in a hāngī (earth oven). Larger tubers were prepared in a variety of ways: in a hāngī (earth oven)

Taewa (or rīwai) is a collective name for the varieties of potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) cultivated by Māori. Before European settlement, taewa was a staple food crop for Māori.

The goodness of the whole kumara family

While the purple kumara's violet hue offers the antioxidant anthocyanins, the orange kumara is richest in beta-carotene that similarly plays a role in overall health and disease prevention. The white kumara is less sweet and can be more easily switched for the standard potato.

The most versatile and sweetest variation of sweet potatoes is the Beauregard. Throughout the United States, you will see this species stacked high in the grocery stores during the holiday season. Beauregard's have a bit of a stringy texture, but they stay soft: this is what makes them so popular.

For the gardener who doesn't care about looks, but is searching for taste, "Jewel" is considered the "Queen of Sweet Potatoes" and is the leading spud planted in North Carolina for commercial growers.