Sweet Potato Leaf
One of the most amazing plants is the sweet potato. It is an amazing plant that is good for soil and good for health. George Washington Carver's work with the peanut often overshadows the sweet potato but this plant deserves much more attention. In the US, there is a tradition of refering to sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) with moist flesh as "yams" while in Africa the term is reserved for those with drier flesh. Importantly, sweet potatoes and true yams are botanically different. Yams are grown for their tubers, originate from West Africa, and are from an entirely different plant family (Dioscoreaceae) than sweet potatoes (Convolvulaceae) that originate in the Americas. Before slavery, enslaved persons ate yams (Dioscoreaceae). During slavery also ate yams (Convolvulaceae) and prepared the yams in similar ways as they had done in Africa. It is likely that enslaved persons encountered the sweet potato in the Americas and brought it with them when they returned to Africa via Sierra Leone. There in Africa, it emerged with other culinary traditions as part of a new creole cuisine. Sierra Leoneons eat plasas, a variety of green sauces that are made from leafy plants. Specifically, the sweet potato sauce made from “petehteh leaf" as it is known across Sierra Leone.
While in Sierra Leone, there is a tradition of eating the sweet potato leaf. In the United States, there was both a culinary and cultural bias against cooking and eating these greens as they were associated with slaves but is important to think about the evolution of this crop before slavery and its role in sustaining cultural heritage foodways during and after the emancipation era. Importantly, the leaves of plants in the Solanaceae family, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, chillis and eggplants should not be eaten because the leaves contain high concentrations of a compound called solanine. Sweet potato leaves do not contain solanine, as sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are in the morning glory family and are not related to nightshade plants (Solanaceae), which produce solanine.
Sweet potato leaf contains over 250% DV of Vitamin K, significant potassium, iron, fiber, and antioxidant vitamins B3 and B5 in every 100g. They help manage blood sugar, support heart health, and act as a potent source of dietary antioxidants to fight oxidative stress. The sweet potato is a crop that you should think about growing in your own garden and cooking in your kitchen.