Is your Easter dinner menu set? Let me throw you a curveball.

As I write this, I am looking out at the ocean from our rental house on the beautiful island of Kauai. One of the pleasures of cooking here is including Okinawan sweet potatoes with every dinner when we’re not eating out.

If mashed potatoes are on your Easter menu, swap your same-old, same-old potatoes for these stunning, deep purple tubers and take bows.

Also known as Hawaiian sweet potatoes or Hawaiian purple sweet potatoes, these unique potatoes are creamy beige on the outside and magenta on the inside when raw and deep purple when cooked, with a honey-like sweet flavor and a very dry, starchy texture.

Botanically they are in the morning glory family and not actually related to the potato. Unlike ordinary potatoes, this one is not a nightshade vegetable.

It is believed the Aztecs introduced the Okinawan sweet potatoes to the Spaniards, who then brought them to the Philippines and China in the 1490s. By the 1600s, they reached Japan where they were planted in Okinawa and then throughout Japan.

Later, early Polynesian settlers brought them to Hawaii where they have become a staple. These nutritious potatoes are high in antioxidants, phytonutrients and health-promoting fiber and actually contain 150% more antioxidants than blueberries.

A trip to Hawaii not in your travel plans by Easter? No worries. You can find Okinawan sweet potatoes at Tokyo Central in Yorba Linda. And why save them for special occasions? Grab some extra and just bake them at 350 degrees until very, very soft, an hour or more depending on size.

I like them plain, but add butter if you like.

No trip to Kauai would be complete without visiting a farmers market.

At Rose’s Tropical Exotics we tasted the Caimito, also called the cream apple, star apple or milk apple, although it’s not an apple at all.

It looks like a purple plum with a light purple interior.

We got several mangosteens, which contain the most antioxidants of any fruit, and bought some Chicas, a sweet tropical fruit that tastes like cinnamon and brown sugar.

At Moloa’a Organica, where everything they sell is grown organically on their own land, we found taro – you boil and eat it like a potato – pumpkin squash, pink and purple daikon radishes, green Japanese eggplant and Noni, a medicinal fruit, which was one of the first fruits the Polynesians brought to Hawaii.

We met Domini Mellott of Sweet Harvest Hawaii, they ship rare Hawaiian botanicals nationwide. Grown locally, these products are said to decrease inflammation, swelling and pain and improve digestion. See their website, secretharvesthawaii.com, and learn why the ginger and turmeric you’re buying in stores are not providing the nutrients you expect.

“Ninety percent of what people eat in Hawaii is brought in,” Mellott explained. “Pre-European Kauai was feeding the rest of the chain through a system of farming called Ahu’pua’a, from the mountain top to the shoreline.”

This land dividing system promoted sustainability and conservation of natural resources, providing everything the native Hawaiians needed to survive.

“They had to be sustainable,” she said. “Everyone else was trading. It’s the most isolated place on earth.”

Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.

Mashed Okinawan Sweet Potatoes

From: Certified chef Valentina Wein’s cookingontheweekends.com

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Okinawan sweet potatoes
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup half-and-half
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Fill medium-size stockpot with cold water. Peel potatoes and cut into large chunks (approximately 2-3 inches). Add to pot with water. Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until potatoes are very tender (they should easily slide off fork prongs), about 15 minutes.

2. Strain potatoes and place them in medium to large mixing bowl. With large fork or potato masher mash them as smooth or chunky as you like. Add butter as soon as possible so it melts into hot potatoes. Then add half-and-half, salt and pepper, and mix only until everything is incorporated.