My guess is that not many of you are eating sweet potato leaves several times a week like we are right now but if you ever want a really good recipe, I made this dish yesterday.
It was so delicious. Vince really loved it but I loved it too.
I started with this recipe – Sweet Potato Greens in Coconut Cream. But, I didn’t follow the recipe so much.
Here’s what I added:
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 small zucchini, sliced into about 3/8″ slices.
- Basil – fresh – a good handful
Here’s how I made the recipe::
- Slice the chicken breasts into thin slices, season them lightly, then dredge them in cornstarch and let them sit about 15 minutes.
- In a large (enough) cast iron Dutch oven, brown the chicken breasts in coconut oil.
- Added the turmeric, lemongrass, ginger root, garlic and onion to the pot and sauteed that.
- Added the soy sauce and stirred in the brown sugar.
- Added the coconut cream, coconut milk and the fresh basil to the pot.
- Added the chicken.
- The recipe called for blanching the greens for 30 seconds, then draining and putting in ice water. After draining, I squeezed the water out and left the greens on a towel to drain more liquid from them. Add them to the pot.
- Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Serve over rice.
I had the basil, turmeric, basil, zucchini and lemongrass in the garden. If you don’t have fresh basil or turmeric, I’m sure dry would be fine. If you don’t have zucchini, you could add yellow squash or even thin slices of sweet potato. If you do not have fresh lemongrass, you can buy dried in a bottle or you can buy fresh grated in a tube.
Vince said “Can we have this once a week so long as we have sweet potato leaves?” Not sure about once a week but we will have it fairly often.
Patti says
I’m guessing you sautéed the greens separately? I fixed radish tops last night, I liked them better than the hubby.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
The recipe said to blanch them in simmering water for 30 seconds, then dunk in ice water so I did that. I will go back and add that part to the list of what I did.
When I’m cooking them, I usually just saute them so that would work too.
Danna Uyehara says
So do you use your greens fresh, or have you canned them, or dried them? I grew sweets for years, never knowing I could eat the greens. I will make this recipe, it sounds delicious, but want to know if it can be made in the winter time. Thanks Judy.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I freeze dry a lot of the greens. I’m guessing that might be similar to dehydrating/drying them. I blanch them first, drain them well and place them on the trays. I also can them – blanch them first, then pressure can them. Another thing I like to do is make small meatballs, wrap them in a larger sweet potato leaf, place them in marinara, simmer for a few minutes then freeze them with the sauce. I will put them in a plastic freezer container and once they’re frozen solid, remove them from the container and vacuum seal them. I find they last longer that way.