Batata: How to Cook and Complete Guide

En Español

How to cook batata

Check our favorite batata recipes, and learn the many ways we prepare this delicious traditional tuber.

All batata recipes

What is batata?

Batata - scientific name Ipomoea batatas - is a very popular root vegetable in the Dominican Republic, and is how sweet potatoes are locally known. It is one of the most popular ingredients in our cuisine and throughout the Caribbean.

Batata has a potato-like consistency, and a starchy, mildly-sweet flavor.

Unlike the orange-fleshed type of sweet potato common in the United States, Dominican batata has a purplish peel and a white flesh that turns greenish to dark green once exposed to air or boiled.

History

The name batata comes from the Taino and was blended with the Quechua papa to create the word patata for the common potato, but papa survives as the standard name for common potato in most of Latin America and even in some parts of Spain. So, batata: sweet potato, papa or patata: common potato.

Names for batata

Other names for sweet potato in the Spanish-speaking world are camote (Mexico, Central America, Peru, and Chile) from the Nahuatl camotli. Elsewhere (Cuba, Spain, and Uruguay) it is boniato. In English, the name for Dominican batata is Oriental sweet potato or Japanese yam.

An interesting side-note is that one of the Quechua names for sweet potato is kumar, similar to its Polynesian name kumara, taken as possible evidence of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact.

Nutrition facts

Batatas are rich in simple and complex carbohydrates, fiber, and beta-carotene. It also contains small amounts of vitamin B5, vitamin B6, and manganese, and once cooked, a vitamin C content equivalent to 25% of the daily recommended value.

Check each recipe to see its nutritional information

How to peel batata

Peeling batata is very easy, just peel with a potato peeler or paring knife as you would potatoes.

How to pick batata

Select batata with as smooth skins as possible, and that have no holes from bugs. Small batatas tend to be sweeter, in my experience.

How to select batatas

Make sure the batata is firm, with no holes from insects (a common insect that attacks it is called "piogán" in the D.R., and it damages it and makes it bitter).