Often ignored in the US, the stems of the sweet potato are edible and highly nutritious. There are two types of sweet potato stem banchan (side dish) recipes in Korea; one that uses fresh stems and the other uses dehydrated stems, each has its distinctive taste.
Can we eat the stem of sweet potato?
Young leaves and growing tips (stems) of the vines of sweet potatoes are quite edible. These greens are eaten in many parts of Asia, particularly Taiwan and the Philippines, and especially in Africa. For some reason Koreans use only stems and not the leaves.
What parts of the sweet potato plant are edible?
The young shoots, the leaves and the tubers are all edible raw. A trypsin inhibitor occurs in the shoots, leaves, stems and tubers of sweet potatoes and some references claim that because of this we should not eat them raw.
Which part of sweet potato we eat stem or root?
Unlike the potato, which is a tuber, or thickened stem, the sweetpotato that we eat is the storage root of the plant; an enlarged lateral root. The plant reproduces in three ways: from seed, from the actual storage roots, or from the plant vines.
Can you eat the vine of sweet potato?
If you want sweet potatoes to eat, the tubers from your ornamental sweet potato vines are indeed edible.
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