Yam

Igname

What it is

In much of West Africa the yam is not a vegetable but the centre of the year: harvest festivals mark its arrival, and pounded into fufu it is the plate onto which everything else is served. Some tubers grow past two metres and outweigh the person digging them.

In the kitchen

Wear gloves peeling raw yam. The sap irritates skin, and it must always be cooked — never eaten raw.

Goes with

Chili pepper Ginger Peanut Tomato Onion Garlic Coconut milk Lime

Same species

Nagaimo (Chinese yam) Black bryony shoots

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