The roots of the purple yam – like those of all types of yams – can have very different shapes. However, the eponymous violet colour of the starchy storage tissue is striking, although it can also be white. The colour comes from anthocyanins and remains when cooked (almost all yams are poisonous when raw!). Especially in the Philippines, purple yams (called “Ube” or “Ubi” there) are used to colour many desserts such as ice creams, “Ube halaya” (pureed purple yams) or halo halo. Because of its colouring and thickening properties, purple yam is also gaining popularity in the kitchen outside the Philippines and is used in cakes and other pastries and desserts. In spicy dishes the root is used like potatoes, for example in the Indian vegetable stew “Undhiyu”. And of course, purple yams can be sliced thinly and deep-fried to make purple chips.

The plant, which grows as a liana, is now cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas around the world and originally comes from Malesia and Melanesia.

• Edible Root
• Culinary Group Tuber an Root Vegetables
• Taste neutral
• Trivial Names Yam, Yams, Yamswurzel, Purpur-Yams, Ube, Ubi, purple yam, greater yam, Guyana arrowroot, ten-months yam, water yam, white yam, winged yam, violet yam, igname ailée, grande igname, igname Saint-Martin, cambarre, kambar, kãbar,
• Size 8 cm
• Taxonomy Dioscoreaceae Dioscorea alata
• Oringin Melanesia, Malesia (Map)
• Locality Market 2016