Are sweet potato leaves edible? You bet they are! My family has been using a simple, yet traditional, Filipino sweet potato leaves recipe ever since I can remember. In Tagalog, the Philippines’s national language, sweet potato leaves are called kamote tops and this recipe is usually called kamote tops salad. Sweet potato leaves salad is my brother’s favorite Filipino dish. I decided to try to make it last night and adapted this kamote tops recipe to my taste. The recipe is as follows:
Ingredients
1 medium bunch of fresh kamote tops (or sweet potato leaves), trimmed
5 cups water
2 medium tomatoes, sliced or quartered
1 medium onion, minced
1 thumb-sized ginger, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine ginger, lemon juice, olive oil and soy sauce.
Heat water in a pot, bring to a boil, add kamote tops and blanch for 30 seconds. Drain. Transfer to a serving dish.
Pour the lemon juice mixture over the blanched kamote tops, add tomato slices and onions, and mix well. Serve.
I didn’t add the ginger because I didn’t have any on hand and I don’t usually use ginger in everyday cooking.
This dish is tradtionally served with freshly-cooked, piping-hot white rice. Mmm!
For a more traditional take, substitute the soy sauce for bagoong, which is fish paste, or patis, which is fish sauce.
Emylisa Warrick is an Online Editorial Assistant at Ogden Publications, the parent company of MOTHER EARTH NEWS. Find her on Google+.
Photo Credit: Emylisa Warrick
