Sweet potato (kamote) tops salad
In the last few weeks of WHB, there were several posts on sweet potato dishes, mostly as main dishes. It sounds weird to me, as here in the Philippines, sweet potatoes are served as desserts much like avocados which we use to make avocado shakes than salads.
We have a patch of sweet potatoes at home, which we we call kamote. Here, kamote is usually planted in backyards but not for harvesting the roots. Usually, the leaves are used as vegetable for soups or salads. Only the shoots (we call them tops, hence kamote tops)are used for cooking, blanched first before making into a salad.
Kamote tops salad
3 cups kamote/sweet potato shoots
1/2 cup cane vinegar
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tomato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
cilantro for garnishing
1 tsp freshly crushed pepper
juice of one citrus fruit*
1. Blanch kamote tops in boiling water for one minute then wash in cold water. Drain.
2. Mix vinegar, fish sauce and sugar. Taste to check if it is to your liking.
3. Assemble the salad in plate. Place the kamote tops first. Top with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and pepper.
4. Pour the vinegar-fish sauce dressing all over the assembly. Drizzle with the juice of citrus before serving.
*Any type of citrus can be used, such lemons or lime. In the Philippines, we use calamansi, the Philippine lemon, in most dishes. In this salad, I used another citrus, the dalanghita which is also widely grown in the country. It was in season when I made this dish and I just picked one from our backyard.
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Thanks to Vani of Batasari for hosting this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging.
Filipino words related to food
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January 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
my husband adores talbos ng kamote… pero sha, he wants it plainly blanched, then he would put fish bagoong… ayos na sa kanya yun. he cant get me to eat it though. medyo may lasa na di ko type eh…
ill try your vinegar-patis dressing. it might work for me.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Looks yummy.. I can just imagine the flavors.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Wow, I learned 2 new things from this post - one the use of sweet potato shoots in cooking and two, that there are so many varieties of citrus that are unknown to me. Sounds like a wonderful dish that I would love to try to experience all these new flavors! It looks wonderful and refreshing!
Welcome to The Foodie Blogroll!
January 8th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Wow, I love learning about how different cultures use the same food. And we each think we know so much! hahaha!
January 8th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
When I was little, my mom used to stir fry sweet potato leaves and the sweet potato as dessert or cook them in porridge. Delicious.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Very interesting! I knew that sweet potato leaves are edible, but I’ve mostly heard of them being boiled as a type of greens. This sounds light and delicious. Also, I haven’t heard of either of those types of citrus, you must write about them for WHB someday.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:59 am
I had to come back and tell you that I noticed another participant has written about calamansi this week. I love learning about these new things!
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
[...] Here’s your tilapia steamed in banana leaves. Note that the skin is not burnt. The stuffing are also well cooked. To enhance the taste, I usually make a dipping sauce of fresh chili and fish sauce. This dish goes well with kamote tops salad. [...]