Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Sweet Potato Greens (Camote Tops) Salad


Many people are familiar with sweet potatoes - the tuber we use for cooking, baking or making desserts. But do you know that the leaves of the sweet potato plant can be eaten as well? The leaves are not only edible but nutritious as well. Its nutritional content is said to be comparable to the spinach. Sweet potato leaves contain dietary fiber, lipid, and essential minerals and nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfur, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, aluminum and boron. They are also important sources of vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid. The leaves are high in protein - making it a perfect dish for vegetarians.

Sweet potato tops are excellent sources of antioxidants, mainly polyphenolics, which may protect the human body from many diseases including cancer and cardiovascular diseases. There are also many anecdotal testimonies that the sweet potato tops are the cure for dengue fever (infammatory, hemmoragic fever caused by a specie of mosquito common in Asia). Information here.

Here in the Philippines, we call the leaves Talbos ng Camote or Camote Tops. Camote is the Tagalog word for sweet potatoes, and Tops, well, because the leaves grown on top! We usually use the leaves for soups and salad. It is an easy plant to grow. It can be harvested several times a year. It is also abundant in all markets and groceries.




1 bunch (around 300 gms) Sweet potato (Camote) Tops, washed, cut into bite sized pieces
4 large tomatoes, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1/3 C rice vinegar (I used brown rice vinegar)
1 T sugar (or more if you prefer a bit sweeter taste)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Blanch the leaves in boiling water. Drain. Immerse in cold water bath. Drain again.

2. Mix the rice vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper together.

3. Arrange the sweet potato leaves on a platter. Top with tomatoes and onions. Drizzle with the vinegar-sugar mixture.


This is the basic salad recipe. For variation, we can add fruits such as mangoes, avocadoes or watermelon cubes.


This highly nutritious, absolutely yummy, totally vegetarian dish is my entry to the Healthy Cooking foodie event. Head over to Mansi's Fun and Food blog to learn more healthy and yummy recipes. After all, we have to eat well in order to live well.

50 comments:

Mansi said...

thanks for introducing me and others like me to camote! I had not known about its health benefits at all! thanks again for a wonderful entry:)

Anonymous said...

You should also include the boiled water extract from the blanched camote tops. This is very nutritious and can be mixed with any type of fruit juice e.g. passion fruit, mango, orange and calamansi. Its purple color even resembles that of the grape juice. The extract is also purported to revive dengue patients, having the same effect as the "Tawa tawa" weed which help in the production of blood platelets. I also use a cocktail mix of passion fruit, calamansi, camote top juice and even with "Extra Joss" to perk up my mornings. Try it!

Vane said...

I was so excited to see this recipie here, Ning! Keep up the great work!

helium said...

RE: CAMOTE TOPS SOUP AS CURE FOR DENGUE FEVER IN PHILIPPINES (SWEET POTATO SOUP)

Regarding the many anecdotal testimonies that the sweet potato tops are the cure for dengue fever (infammatory, hemmoragic fever caused by a specie of mosquito common in Asia) I have proven that it really works well when my son Karl had Dengue fever last year. The doctors cannot do anything but to wait for a blood transfusion to remedy the falling platelet count of my son Andre Karl Ramos who has been confined to the Hospital of Infant Jesus for about a week already. I kept researching for an alternative natural cure via google when I stumbled on a blog about camote tops as cure for dengue as claimed by Philippine Napolcom director (I forgot the name already).
Two hours after giving my son Andre the salted soup of this talbos ng kamote or camote tops soup my sons platelet count skyrocketed from 30T to 100T and the following day the doctors had no choice but to discharge him from hospital as we insisted also.
Im a living proof that it worked. I KNOW I KNOW...Its very hard to administer something to your sick kid without a solid proof that it worked. I made effort to elaborate the details so doubtful parents can ask me first..here is my email adress:

heliumtrdg@gmail.com

Im wondering why the Philippine government is not focusing proper campaign for this camote soup as the cure for the very deadly dengue fever. Pls spread the word.
This is my own little contribuition to combat dengue fever and help the needy parents out there whose kid suffers from this dengue disease. May google bots find this blog reply and present this valuable info for the needy parents promptly. -Fernan Ramos. Quezon City, Philippines

Unknown said...

Sweet potato is a highly nutritious and an alternative for food for their valuable contents of carbohydrate, protein and carotene, which are necessary for normal development and even for the sexual development too, believe it or not. Sweet potato is really helpful for welfare and our body.

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