The health benefits of sweet potato tendrils

All through this week, we have been blogging about the abundant health benefits of consuming sweet potatoes. As we have discovered, almost all the parts of the sweet potatoes are of nutritional benefit to us; from the sweet potato leaves to tubers and even the sweet potato tendrils. As was noted by my colleague in a previous blog post, sweet potatoes will be the next health craze. Many parts of the world are just discovering the health benefits of the sweet potatoes.

So of what health benefits are the sweet potato tendrils? The tendrils refer to the threadlike stems of the sweet potatoes that hold the leaves.  These are also edible and have been found to be just as nutritious as the sweet people leaves and the sweet potato tubers.

Like the sweet potato leaves, sweet potato tendrils provide a rich dietary source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber, and essential fatty acids. Bioactive compounds contained in this vegetable play a role in health promotion by improving immune function, reducing oxidative stress and free radical damage, reducing cardiovascular disease risk, and suppressing cancer cell growth.

In the Philippines,  recipes and elaborate uses from the various parts of the sweet potato plants have been developed. The nutritional benefits of sweet potato tendrils are one of the reasons the potatoes are now considered a super food!

The tendrils should be harvested from the crop before they become hard and tough. They can be harvested one month after the crop is planted or if you have mature crop, you can harvest them close to the shoots where they are still green and very tender. Below is a step by step guide on ow you can harvest sweet potato tendrils and an accompanying sweet potato tendrils recipe that you can eat with rice :)

Planting sweet potatoes in urban areas
Since sweet potato leaves can be difficult to source especially in an urban setting and from supermarkets, you can simple plant them in your backyard. Normally, if you don't have a garden, you can add soil to bags, add some water and then plant the sweet potato vines.  If you have a garden, then you can create "mounds" of soil and on each mound, stick the sweet potato vines deeply into the soil. Wearing gloves to protect your nails from breaking, hold the vines and insert them deep, at the bottom of the mound then cover three quarters of the vines with soil. Make sure the vines are well watered so that the shoots can sprout fairly quickly.

They can survive under very harsh conditions and adding water once a day to your sweet potato garden will be sufficient to produce enough leaves and tendrils. You can place them in a balcony and use some sticks to hold the tendrils so that they can "crawl" as far as possible. That way, you will be assured of sufficient amounts of sweet potato tendrils.

Harvesting sweet Potato tendrils
When harvesting, just nip the green fresh tendrils close to the shoots and new shoots will sprout elsewhere. I think to use them as vegetables, you can start harvesting the tendrils as early as 10 weeks after planting depending on the conditions and care put into maintaining the plants. Remember that after two months, the tubers will begin appearing so ensure your bags are as large as possible to accommodate large amounts of tubers if you don't have a garden. Each sweet potato vine can produce as much as 4-7 tubers which can be anything from a few hundred grams to 3 Kilograms. Under good conditions, you can produce very large tubers. After 4-5 months, depending on variety, you can harvest your tubers and begin the process all over again for fresh supply of tendrils if you like. You can grow the sweet potatoes continuously throughout the year.

The vines are very tasty and are also packed with iodine(probably the only vegetables with packed with iodine). Like sweet potato leaves, the tendrils also contain Vitamins A, C and D. The tendrils are also used to treat diarrhea and dizziness.

Sweet Potato tendrils Recipes
Ingredients

•  Some spice of your choice,in the Philipines they use the Asafoetida. Some Indian friends can help you on this :-)
• 1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
• 1 Tsp of Mustard Seeds
• 4 pcs potatoes, peeled and diced into ½ inch squares
• 4 or more large Tomatoes, diced finely or 1 small can crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups of Water, Vegetable Stock or Rice Washing
• 1 large bunch of fresh sweet potato tendrils, hard stems removed and washed
• Dash of Cumin Powder
• Sea Salt or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, to taste

Heat the oil in a bigger and deeper pot and add some mustard seeds. Fry them until they begin to pop and then add some spice. Add the cumin. Then add the potatoes and stir fry them until the outer parts start to change color. Add and sauté the tomatoes until they become tender. Add the water and allow it to boil.

Add your sea salt or Bragg’s. Add the sweet potato tendrils. Continue to boil, around 5 minutes, until the potatoes are tender enough, mixing them once or twice to ensure that all the ingredients are cooked evenly. Serve warm and eat and sty healthy!

Sweet Potato Tendrils

For inquiries and to make an order for sweet potatoes, email us at kabondofarms[at]yahoo.com