Given their annual appearance on the Thanksgiving table, buried under a snowdrift of melted marshmallow, sweet potatoes may already be an easy sell in your home. But you don't have to pile on the candy or brown-sugar glaze for them to win your children's affections. Even naked and alone, the sweet potato has natural sugars that are enough to satisfy any sweet tooth, and without the traditional gilding, this vegetable offers generous nutritional benefits. Its vibrant orange flesh provides healthy doses of beta-carotene (an immunity-boosting nutrient) and vitamin A, as well as worthwhile amounts of calcium and protein.

Sometimes mistakenly labeled as yams at the supermarket (true yams—starchy, bland tubers—are rarely seen in the U.S. outside ethnic markets), sweet potatoes vary in color and consistency. The most common variety is the long, brown-skinned Beauregard, prized for its silky texture and rich flavor, but you can use all kinds interchangeably in cooking. The following recipes, gathered from gourmet parents who know their way around a restaurant kitchen, will get kids to enjoy sweet potatoes without resorting to the usual syrupy inducements. Tamara Murphy of Seattle's Brasa slips golden chunks into a fall soup; Gwenaël Le Pape of E.U., in New York City, tops off his Sweet-Potato Gratins with melted cheese; and Azmin Ghahreman of Sapphire Laguna, in Laguna Beach, California, whips up fluffy Sweet-Potato Pancakes (with the slightest dollop of cinnamon-spiked honey butter)—three ways to ensure this root remains a healthy mealtime staple and not just marshmallow's stodgy sidekick.

Next Page: Tamara Murphy's Chunky Sweet-Potato Soup