Cooking with sweet potato leaves

In the middle of August in the deep south, there isn’t much thriving in the garden other than okra, black eyed peas and sweet potatoes. You can forget growing any kale, spinach or lettuce this time of year. This is the time of year though when we start missing our fresh greens from the garden.

This is the time of year when we begin cooking with sweet potato leaves! While this may sound strange to some, they make a great replacement for sauteed mustard and turnip greens. They are also excellent in soups that would otherwise have kale or spinach in it.

What are sweet potato leaves?

Sweet potato leaves are the part of the sweet potato plant that is growing above ground. In the hottest part of the summer, these leaves flourish, giving you an abundance of greens. They have a taste similar to turnip greens.

Sweet potato leaves are nutritious

Sweet potato leaves are found to have vitamins A, E, C, and K. They also contain folate, beta carotene, manganese, selenium, zinc, magnesium, calcium and potassium.

On top of all that, sweet potato leaves are know to be full of antioxidants and to have anti-carcinogenic properties. That alone makes it worth it to give them a try!

How do I grow sweet potatoes?

There are a few different ways that you can grow a sweet potato plant. I grow mine from sweet potato slips. These are the sprouts from older sweet potatoes that are then cut off and put in a jar of water or in soil to grow roots.

Some people plant the whole sweet potato when it has begun growing roots. Others place a sweet potato long ways into a jar of water. The sweet potato is held just above the water by sticking toothpicks into the sweet potato so. that the toothpicks sit on top of the jar top. The jar is then sat in a sunny place. Eventually the sweet potato will begin growing slips on the top of the potato.

You can also order sweet potato slips from seed companies such as Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (where I ordered mine from this year) or Johhny’s Select Seeds.

So, once you have your sprouted sweet potato, or it’s slips, you can then plant them.

• Sweet potatoes like warm weather. They grow best in late spring or early summer. They cannot handle cold weather.
• Loosen soil and fertilize before planting. Fertilize like you would any other root crop.
• Slips should be planted in the soil about 2″ deep and 12″ apart. Rows should be about 3′ feet apart.
• Water your slips in well and continue to water well for the first couple of weeks. After that, they will need about 1″ of water a week.
• About two months after planting, you should be able to start harvesting greens. Never take more than 1/4 of the leaves, or you may risk stunting the roots growing beneath.
• You can harvest the tubers around 120 days after planting. However, if you dig them up and they aren’t big enough, try leaving them in a little longer. You have to dig them up before the first frost though.
• In order for your sweet potatoes to actually be sweet, you will have to cure them. They need around 90% humidity at 85 degrees. For some this is best done somewhere like a green house. For us, it means digging them up and laying them on a tarp for about a week on our front porch. Curing also lengthens their storage ability.

How can I use my sweet potato leaves in cooking?

Cooking with sweet potato leaves is just like cooking with most any other green. You can saute them in a fat and season well. You can add them to soups like zupa when you don’t have any kale or spinach. Sweet potato leaves do taste best cooked though.

In the south, I grew up eating turnip, mustard and collard greens. I try to cook seasonally, and those greens are long gone by the middle of summer. Sweet potato leaves are an excellent replacement.

Here is a recipe for our favorite way to eat them!

Ingredients:

• Sweet potato leaves (enough to fill a large mixing bowl, they will wilt down)
• Bacon fat or lard, 2 tbsp.
• Salt
• Pepper
• Half an onion
• Two cloves of garlic

Recipe:

1. Wash your sweet potato leaves well.
2. Chop your onion and mince your garlic.
3. Heat a large cast iron skillet to medium-high heat. Add bacon grease and let melt.
4. Saute onion until soft. Add garlic and saute about one more minute, being careful not to burn the garlic.
5. Add in sweet potato leaves. Add a little at a time and add more as they wilt.
6. Cook until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy eating this seasonal gem from the garden as much as we do! Let me know if you know of any unique ways to cook this green.

If you want more recipes on using up the food from your garden, read here or here!