Down on the Allotment

Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a Hampshire garden. I've been growing veggies since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Some traditional varieties and old favourites as well as new ideas. I share my garden with my allotment assistant Daisy the Labrador. On Twitter as @MatronsVeggies

Friday, September 13, 2013

Eating Pumpkin Leaves

 I have been meaning to try this for ages.  Apparently it is quite common in Asia and Africa to cook and eat pumpkin leaves.  Not something I have ever heard of here in the UK, but yesterday I gave it a go!
 I chose the smaller, younger leaves that were at the end of the growing points.
 Definitely not the larger leaves... I might use those to wrap Christmas presents!!!
 So I picked a handful of young leaves...
 They were really clean, spotless... but I gave them a rinse anyway.
 Chopped them up and boiled them for about 10 minutes.
They were beautifully tender, lovely bright green colour, and the taste was lovely! Mild flavour probably a bit like Savoy cabbage but much more tender like spinach.   Well... not completely wonderful, the really off-putting thing about eating pumpkin leaves was the feel of all those little hairs and spines on the leaves... I could feel them inside my mouth as I was chewing and it felt hairy!!!  If I could find a hairless pumpkin leaf.. it would be a wonderful delicacy. Until then.. no thanks!

posted by Matron @ 4:58 PM

9 Comments:

At 6:43 PM, Blogger Midmarsh John said...

Aha - the first food you have to sandpaper down before you cook it.

 
At 10:11 PM, Blogger Peggy said...

I did you say you would try anything once! I was wondering if they would be hairy when cooked as I was reading your post and there it was at the end, confirmation!

 
At 10:40 AM, Blogger Mark Willis said...

Interesting, but I'm not surprised that you didn't enjoy the hairy texture. People often advocate eating Radish leaves, but those too are hairy and unpleasant to me. I suppose if you are a poor subsistance farmer in Africa you would probably need to maximise the yield of your plants by eating the leaves as well as the fruits, because they are presumably nutritious to a degree.

 
At 7:53 PM, Blogger Dewberry / Amanita said...

I've never eaten pumpkin leaves! Next year I'll try them :)

Thanks for sharing such idea!

 
At 5:57 PM, Anonymous Sharon said...

Wow. I had never heard of eating pumpkin leaves. Radish and carrot tops yes. Are leaves of all squash varieties edible? Very cool. But does the large yellow beastie like them?!

 
At 9:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

They are not so hairy if you know how to peel them first.

 
At 8:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

make sure you cook them well. 10 minutes is not enough.
if cooked well you will not feel their hairy texture. also cut the leaves into small pieces and peel the hairy parts off(not a must)

 
At 1:29 PM, Blogger Tsitsi M said...

Ha ha ha, you are supposed to skin off the hairy bit! You do this by half-breaking the end of the stem and you pull the hairy string right down and off the leaf. Try it, it will be as smooth as a baby's bum!!

 
At 12:05 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

The leaves need to be stripped of the hairy veins prior to cooking

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

>