Kūmara — season, tips, and recipes in Australia
Kūmara is a vegetables available in Queensland during January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, peaking in April, May, June. This page is a practical guide for home cooks: when to buy kūmara, how to pick a good one, how to store it, what it goes well with, three original recipes, and detailed nutrition information.
Called kūmara in New Zealand. Not widely grown in Australia, where sweet potato is the equivalent crop.
How to pick a good one
Firm, no soft spots or sprouting. Three types: Owairaka Red (red/white), Beauregard (orange), gold. Orange is sweetest.
How to store it
Cool dark place, never fridge. Cold damages cells. Lasts weeks.
Goes well with
coconut: Coconut's fat carries kumara's beta-carotene and amplifies its sweetness. Used together in Pacific cooking for centuries -- the combination is geographically as well as flavour-logical.
chilli: Chilli's heat contrasts with kumara's sweetness in a way that makes both more interesting. The combination appears across Caribbean and Asian cooking.
lime: Lime acid cuts through kumara's sweetness and prevents it from being one-dimensional. The combination is the basis of most good kumara salads.
cumin: Cumin's earthy, warm notes add savoury depth to kumara's sweetness and make it work better in main courses rather than as a sweet side.
Recipes
Kūmara Wedges
Better than chips.
Ingredients: 2 kūmara, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp smoked paprika, salt
Method: Cut into wedges. Toss with oil, paprika, salt. Spread on tray. Roast 200C for 30 min, flipping once, until crispy.
Kūmara & Coconut Soup
Creamy, warming, winter perfect.
Ingredients: 2 kūmara, 1 onion, 400ml coconut cream, 500ml stock, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tbsp oil
Method: Sweat onion with curry powder. Add diced kūmara and stock. Simmer 20 min. Add coconut cream. Blend smooth.
Roasted Kūmara Salad
Warm salad. Works as a main.
Ingredients: 2 kūmara, 1 tin chickpeas (drained), 100g feta, handful rocket, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice
Method: Cube kūmara. Toss with oil. Roast 200C for 25 min. Toss with chickpeas, rocket, crumbled feta, lemon juice.
Nutrition
One medium kūmara provides 400% of your daily vitamin A (from beta-carotene), 35% of your vitamin C, and 4g of fibre. The orange varieties have the most beta-carotene. About 103 calories. Gram for gram, kūmara provides more vitamin A than any other common vegetable. It was a key food source for early Māori for good reason.