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Monday, March 26, 2012

Unusual Market Vegetable 1: Pumpkin Greens

Mr Provincial and I had a discussion over the weekend, the conclusion of which being that since we arrived in Darwin we have not eaten nearly enough vegetables.  The cause we decided was not knowing what to do with three-quarters of the vegetables we encounter at our essentially Asian market (Rapid Creek for Posie Patchwork's info).  So we decided he would purchase one or two extra 'unusual' vegetables a week and we would research how to cook them once he had brought them home.

This week on of those vegetables was a $2 bunch of pumpkin greens which he asserts were selling like hotcakes to the Asian and African communities.  My research confirms they are widely eaten in South Asia and rural Africa.  They are a rich souce of Vitamin A.


I found some more complicated recipes on the web, but in the end decided to keep it simple.  After rinsing, I chopped the greens into large pieces, and stir-fryed them in a little olive oil and salt for about 5 minutes (until cooked down).  


Then I tossed through about four cloves of chopped garlic.


Can you say delicious?  Even ginger ate some of the stems - they sufficiently resemble beans for her to give them a go.

5 comments:

  1. I keep meaning to try out some different kinds of vegetables. I had no idea pumpkin greens were edible! I've been debating planting pumpkins. Don't really have the room (small lot in the city) but maybe I'll squeeze one in.

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  2. I too had no idea that pumpkin greens were edible..thanks for opening my eyes to new possibilities!!! Can't wait to see what else you try out! Isn't ginger a star for eating them...if only i had that sort of luck with my 2!!!

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  3. A good recipe for any greens!

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  4. Oh yum they sound delicious stirfried. I didn't realise that you could pumpkin leaves and using up all of the plant is very frugal and clever too. :)

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  5. I recently got a marvelous book out of the library called "tropical cuisine/cooking in Claires kitchen" by Claire Richards. You should be able to request it online from your library. She talked about cooking pumpkin greens and all sorts of different tropical food. Such wonderful recipes. I just discovered your blog through a link from Down to Earth. Nice to find another blogger from tropical Australia. I am just north of Port Douglas.

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