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Great Kiwi Kūmara Recipes | Fieldco x Dish

Dish Magazine and Fieldco Kumara Feature

Celebrating the Great Kiwi Kūmara with Dish

Kūmara is more than just a vegetable in Aotearoa New Zealand. It has deep cultural and historical significance and has been an important part of the country’s food story for generations.

To celebrate one of New Zealand’s most loved and versatile vegetables, Fieldco has partnered with Dish and Kin & Crop to bring you The Great Kiwi Kūmara Collection—a selection of delicious kūmara recipes to enjoy throughout winter and beyond.

The history of kūmara in New Zealand

The Polynesian ancestors of Māori brought kūmara to Aotearoa in the 13th century. Different iwi have their own traditions about its arrival, including stories of the ancestors who protected kūmara during the long journey to New Zealand and established the first gardens.

The early varieties were smaller than many of the commercial kūmara varieties grown today. Māori developed highly skilled growing and storage techniques to help the tropical crop thrive in New Zealand’s cooler climate.

Kūmara was planted in carefully prepared gardens, particularly in the warmer northern regions of the country. Once harvested, it could be stored in specially designed storage pits known as rua kūmara, helping provide a dependable source of food across the seasons.

Its nutritional value, versatility and ability to be stored for extended periods made kūmara an important staple in traditional Māori diets.

Discover the Great Kiwi Kūmara Collection

With the cooler months here, it is the perfect time to put more New Zealand-grown kūmara on the menu.

Created in partnership with Dish and Kin & Crop, The Great Kiwi Kūmara Collection brings together our collaboration on our Kumara Yummo’s and Whipped Ricotta and Lime and Coriander Dressing Recipe, along with some of Dish’s top kūmara recipes. The collection showcases just how versatile kūmara can be, with options for weeknight dinners, comforting family meals, colourful sides and even baking.

Recipe inspiration includes:

  • Lamb cutlets with roasted kūmara chunks
  • Potato and kūmara gratin
  • Crispy kūmara fritters
  • Kūmara and carrot cake
  • Soups, pies, salads and vegetarian meals

Whether roasted until golden, mashed into a comforting topping, grated into fritters or incorporated into baking, kūmara can add natural sweetness, colour and substance to a wide range of dishes.

Why cook with kūmara?

Kūmara is an easy ingredient to incorporate into everyday meals. Its naturally sweet flavour works across both savoury and sweet recipes, while the different varieties offer a choice of colours, flavours and textures.

Use kūmara to:

  • Add colour and substance to winter meals
  • Create warming soups, pies and gratins
  • Make roasted sides for meat or vegetable dishes
  • Add natural sweetness to cakes and baking
  • Build satisfying vegetarian meals
  • Put a fresh spin on familiar family favourites

Find your next favourite kūmara recipe

From roasted kūmara and hearty gratins to tasty fritters and kūmara cakes, there is something in the collection for every table.

Explore The Great Kiwi Kūmara Collection from Dish and discover more delicious ways to enjoy New Zealand-grown kūmara this winter.

VIEW THE GREAT KIWI KUMARA COLLECTION

At Fieldco, we take the utmost care to bring you the best tasting kumara in the country. Our kūmara is handpicked because the skin is delicate and can scrape easily during harvest and any damage to the skin affects the integrity of the kumara as its stored over the rest of the year. 

Support our humble hero, the kumara!

Want to get the recipe of our Kumara Yummo’s with Whipped Ricotta and Lime & Coriander Dressing? View here

Frequently asked questions

What is kūmara?

Kūmara is the Māori name for Sweet Potato and what it is most commonly referred to in New Zealand. We also have a couple of national varieties, such as the Owairaka and Tokatoka Gold that are native to New Zealand. It has been grown in New Zealand for centuries and remains a popular ingredient in Kiwi kitchens.

How can kūmara be cooked?

Every kumara variety has to be cooked differently, to make the flavour sing! You can check out more on this here. Kūmara can be roasted, baked, boiled, mashed, fried or added to soups, curries, salads, pies and baking.

What meals can I make with kūmara?

Kumara is such a versatile vegetable, that can be used in so many more ways than just roasted! Popular options include kūmara gratin, fritters or small pancakes (a great option if you have little ones!), soups, salads, pies, curries and kūmara cakes.

View our recipe collection here

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Fresh kumara

Spring Planting: Kumara in the Ground

Spring is when our first kumara slips go into the ground, for the next year’s kumara harvest! With only 1 harvest annually, this is a critical time of year to grow our kumara right and plant in good ground so we can provide you with the best tasting produce.

When new season kumara is later on to the market at the start of autumn, this is usually due to wet weather at the start of spring which delays all plantings.

According to old Maori custom, the whole tribe went out to plant their kūmara when the kōwhai bloomed. The Kōwhai tree, a native tree to New Zealand, blooms around the September weeks, where the colder weather is easing off.

So much was this the custom that when they wanted to hint that a man was lazy they would use the proverb, “Where were you when the kōwhai bloomed?”


The season begins with our team carefully washing the kumara that will be planted. These are then laid out in what we call “kumara beds”, where they start to sprout. Shoots emerge from the beds and are carefully cut and collected into crates. These shoots, known as slips, are then planted into moulded rows in the field, where they grow into fully mature kumara plants, ready for harvest a few months later.

Here’s 3 recipe ideas from our collection, for you to enjoy Kumara this spring:

1. Kumara Quinoa Picnic Jars

    Great fresh way to enjoy NZ’s iconic vegetable!

    Put your dressing on the bottom of the jar to save your salad ingredients from going soggy before you get to eat it.

    Either tip onto a plate, or shake in the jar to combine: Kumara Quinoa Jars

    2. Kumara can be pretty sweet too!

    Try these sweet scones for a tasty morning tea: Kumara Scones

    3. Kumara & Mussel Fritters

    Fritters are a simple but tasty staple for the family! Try this twist on a kiwi classic; the mussel fritter!

    Recipe here for Kumara & Mussel Fritters

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    Storing and Curing of Kumara

    Kumara only has 1 harvest annually, so storage becomes a crucial part of the journey onto the supermarket shelves. Bad storage can lead to the product losing weight, shrivelling and bringing low returns back to the grower with a low quality product for New Zealanders.

    Kumara Storage has long been a practice, dating right back to when early Maori in New Zealand, when kumara was even then a key part of their diet! Pictured are 3 kumara storage pits that were in use in the 1930s. According to history, pits were dug into the side of earth banks with wooden doorways and reinforcing added. This also helped give protection against pests and thieves.

    The process of ‘curing’ requires careful management and a knowledge of the crop as it comes in from the field. Each block has to be treated differently and careful storage to keep the sheds organised as we progress through the year.

    As the bins come in from the field, our Storage Manager will unload into temperature controlled sheds to start the process of ‘curing’.

    Curing is a process where the produce is held in specific climate conditions for a short direction, then moved to a very different storage condition.

    Kumara’s sweet spot for curing is high humidity for the first few days.

    At our harvest, our motto is ‘treat them like eggs’. Vastly differently to the average potato, kumara are a very delicate crop to harvest so they take careful handling.

    As the kumara goes through the process of curing, this helps form a layer of ‘suberin’ – a waxy substance covering the tuber. This toughens the kumara skin making them easier to pack and ultimately a better quality product that lasts longer on the supermarket shelf.

    Curing also converts some of the starch in this high-starch vegetable, to natural sugars,  by triggering the sugar-producing enzymes in the kumara. This gives them a better taste overall.

    Maori History Source: https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/40255/kumara-storage-pits-1930

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    Why is Dargaville the Kumara Capital?

    the kumara capital

    You’ll often hear of the phrase “The Kumara Capital of New Zealand”. And it makes us wonder, does everyone actually know where this is and the reason behind it?

    Dargaville is the Kumara Capital of New Zealand. And it stands with good reason, as 95% of kumara you’ll find in your supermarket comes from the Kumara Capital.

    Dargaville is a small farming town located 2 hours north of Auckland. Only a short 10 minutes from the West Coast and winding alongside the Northern Wairoa River, the land in the Dargaville region is typically quite flat.

    Kumara growing in the Kaipara region dates right back to early Maori times where kumara was a long lasting crop for the tribes to store and they included it in their diets most of the year.

    And do we really know why it is called the Kumara Capital?

    Most will tell you it’s because of the shallow clay bed that makes up a lot of the land on the river plains near the Wairoa River. Kumara grow well in the alluvial plains of the northern Kaipara Region. Rich top-soil of the river plains is furrowed to a depth which ensure a good-looking well-shaped kumara crop. This shallow clay bed means the kumara, which is a root crop, grows to a good depth, before hitting the  clay layer.

    Another reason is because the Kaipara region also has a very tropical climate, with warm summers and very mild winters. Kumara are a subtropical plant, grow best in tropical areas. The average temperature in the Kaipara is relatively high with our warm nights and high sunshine hours.  We typically have more sunshine than other parts of Northland even.

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