Do you enjoy eating sweet potato? Many enjoy this sweet root vegetable as a baked, roasted, steamed, boiled, or fried dish. The LbE Sustainability team particularly enjoys sweet potato fries as a great substitute to regular potato fries.
So when a sweet potato is harvested, you could imagine that you would be looking for the large roots of the plant under the soil. Once you pull the roots from beneath the soil, what becomes of the shoots and leaves that beautifully and rather wildly sprouts above the soil? Throw it away, right?
Well...did you know you could actually eat the sweet potato leaves as well? Wow, that's two dishes in one, and leaving you with much less waste!
So here is a quick way to prepare a Sweet Potato Leaves dish in minutes!
Large bunch of sweet potato leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbps Shaoxing wine (optional)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp water
1) Either remove the entire plant from the ground - roots, stems, and leaves, revealing the sweet potato, or simply cut off the full stem above the soil.
2) Cut off each leaf from the stem and place in a colander. You may want to wear gloves as some sap may ooze from the stems.
3) Rinse the sweet potato leaves with water. Remember, if you grow your OWN vegetables, you most likely would not have any harmful chemicals on your leaves so you could very comfortably just give the leaves a gentle rinse and not having to do any further sterilizing! The beauty of home grown crops.....!
4) Chop a couple cloves of garlic.
5) On medium heat, cook sauté the garlic in oil, until fragrant.
6) Add in the sweet potato leaves and sauté. The leaves will shrink.
7) Add in soy sauce, salt, Chinese wine (optional), sugar, and some water. Mix well.
8) Be sure to save the stems of the sweet potato leaves! You could replant them to begin the process all over again and sustainably have sweet potato leaves forever...so long you care for them. :)
