A Chinese meal won’t be complete without a nutritious side of stir-fried veggies. If you have already cooked my stir-fried recipes such as Stir-Fried Bok Choy And Mushrooms and Chinese Water Spinach Stir Fry, I recommend adding this Stir Fry Sweet Potato Leaves With Garlic recipe to your meal plan as well. This authentic Chinese stir-fried recipe can be done in less than 15 minutes with just pantry-friendly ingredients and a special ingredient, fermented black beans(optional).
What Are Sweet Potato Leaves?
Did you know that sweet potatoes have tasty edible leaves? Not only is the tuber the delicious and edible part, but its green pointed leaves and stems as well. Keep in mind that sweet potato leaves are different from yam leaves and are often confused with the other.
Sweet potato leaves are medium to large in size and come in various shapes and colors, from green to purple and yellow. Some sweet potato leaves are round, heart-shaped, triangular, lobed, or hastate, to name a few. It usually has light green stems that are thin and tender.
When it comes to taste, it is slightly bitter like spinach or water spinach, but can be lessened once it is cooked and seasoned. Once it is cooked, it becomes soft with a bit of crunch. You can eat this raw for salads or cooked after blanching, stir-frying, and sautéing.
Sweet potato leaves are highly nutritious since they contain numerous minerals and vitamins, including vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K, beta-carotene, calcium, fiber, magnesium, potassium, and riboflavin, among other things. It pairs well with other ingredients and main dishes such as garlic, fermented black beans, chicken, fish, and many more.
My mom has planted a lot of sweet potato leaves in her vegetable garden, and every time she brings back a bunch for me, I am delighted. I enjoy eating sweet potato leaves.
Where To Buy Sweet Potato Leaves?
Luckily, sweet potato leaves are available in any season, all year round. So, you can most likely find these in Asian grocery stores or supermarkets. If you can find fresh sweet potatoes with the leaves still attached, you can simply remove the leaves and make use of the sweet potato to make the following recipes:
- Sweet Potato Balls
- Purple Sweet Potato Paste With 4 Ingredients
- Purple Sweet Potato Bun
- Steamed Taro Bun
Recipe Techniques And Ingredient Tips
I share my pro tips when it comes to finding the right ingredients and alternatives for this hearty dish. Take the time to read my recipe techniques and tips below before proceeding with the steps. Whether you are a newbie or an expert in cooking, the following pro tips will surely help you create the most delicious sweet potato leaves with garlic the first time around.
- Sweet potato leaves: Sweet potato leaves vary in color. You may find dark green, slightly yellow, and purple leaves. When choosing green leaves, make sure it is even in color without spots or tears. Generally, the color is darker on the front side and lighter on the back and stems. To prepare the leaves for cooking, you will have to remove the fibrous outer layer by cutting off the base of the stem and pulling the outer layer away.
- Oyster sauce: Oyster sauce adds a combination of soy sauce and barbecue sauce flavors. You can substitute this with light or dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, kecap manis, Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce and sugar, oyster-flavored sauce, or fish sauce.
- Chicken bouillon powder: Chicken bouillon powder or cube helps enhance the flavor. You can use vegetable powder to make it a vegan or vegetarian dish. Another alternative you can use is Italian seasoning mix. Feel free to omit this ingredient if you don’t have it available.
- Garlic: Stir-fried vegetables commonly incorporate minced garlic for a garlicky and nutty taste.If you don’t have garlic but want the garlicky flavors, you can swap 1 clove of garlic with 1/8 tsp of garlic powder or 1/4 tsp of granulated garlic. This will give you the garlicky flavor without the bits of garlic. You can also use pre-cooked crispy fried garlic if you prefer and mix it during the stir-frying step or as a garnish.
- Oil: The oil will be used for the blanching and stir-frying steps. Any cooking oil will do, such as olive, avocado, sesame, or safflower oil. For a neutral taste, opt for peanut, soybean, or vegetable oil. If you prefer oil with a high smoke point, go for avocado, peanut, canola, or corn oil.
- Fermented black beans: A special ingredient for this recipe is fermented black beans, a popular ingredient in Chinese dishes. You will love its rich, funky, and umami flavors. Fermented black beans are made by salting and fermenting the black soybeans, eventually becoming dry and slightly soft salted beans. Once it is cooked, it becomes chewy and soft. This ingredient is optional.
- Where to buy: You may find this in stores in dry and whole beans labeled as fermented black beans, douchi, tochi, or salted black beans. It is usually available in Asian grocery stores or Chinese supermarkets and is packed in plastic bags, bottles, or jars. If you can’t find it in the store, try looking at online stores like Amazon. The varieties of fermented black beans are either salted or with added seasonings.
- Alternatives to try: You may find regular black beans in the store, however, these are completely different from fermented black beans. Regular black beans cannot be used interchangeably with fermented black beans since it has a different taste and does not offer the same funky flavors. So, make sure to check the label and that it says it is fermented. If you really can’t find fermented black beans, you can try using Chinese black bean sauce or paste.
- How to use: In this recipe, I simply added the fermented black beans straight into the stir-frying step. If you have extra fermented black beans, you can use it to make the following recipes:
- Optional ingredients: If you want to further enhance the flavor of sweet potato leaves, you can season them with sugar, white pepper powder, fermented bean curd, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine. Adjust the amount according to your liking.
Blanch the sweet potato leaves (or not?)
To expedite the cooking process, I sometimes skip the blanching step. But if you’re stir-frying a large quantity of sweet potato leaves, I recommend blanching.
Put Together These Ingredients And Kitchenware
A cooking pot is all you need for blanching and stir-frying the leaves. Use a spatula to stir or simply use your hands to shake the pan to toss the leaves. Other than that, you won’t really need a knife since the leaves only require snapping the stem and pulling the fibrous outer layer apart with your hands.
Blanching
- A bunch of sweet potato leaves
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tbsp of oil
- Water
Stir-frying
- Oil
- 10g of garlic
- 10g of fermented black beans
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of chicken bouillon powder
- 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
How To Make Stir Fry Sweet Potato Leaves With Garlic
In this recipe, you can cut, blanch, and stir-fry the sweet potato leaves in just 15 minutes or less. Watch the detailed steps through my tutorial guide on Instagram or TikTok. When you are done making this dish, don’t forget to tag me @kitchenmisadventures and leave a comment.
- Prepare the sweet potato leaves by breaking the base of the stem and pulling out the fibrous outer layer(It is an option). This should leave you with the leaves and the tender stem parts. You can also clean it by rinsing it with water.
- Fill a cooking pot with water and bring to a boil.
- Once it boils, stir in salt and oil.
- Place the sweet potato leaves in the boiling water and blanch for only 20 seconds. Then, drain the leaves. Do not overblanch the leaves or else they will lose their crunch and become mushy.
- Prepare the garlic. You can crush or roughly chop the garlic.
- In a pan or wok, add the oil.
- Once the oil is hot, stir-fry the garlic and fermented black beans until fragrant.
- Turn the heat to high, add the sweet potato leaves, and give it a good mix.
- Season with salt, chicken bouillon powder, and oyster sauce.
- Mix the seasonings by rotating the leaves and stir-frying quickly.
- Adjust the seasoning to taste if needed.
- When the leaves are tender, transfer them to your serving plate.
If you love vegetables, try my other recipes for more variety, such as The Easiest Air Fryer Bok Choy Recipe, Quick & Easy Yu Choy Sum Recipe, and Hot & Crispy Bitter Melon Salad.
Stir Fry Sweet Potato Leaves With Garlic
Ingredients
Blanching
- A bunch of sweet potato leaves
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tbsp of oil
- Water
Stir-frying
- Oil
- 10 g of garlic
- 10 g of fermented black beans
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of chicken bouillon powder
- 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
Instructions
- Prepare the sweet potato leaves by breaking the base of the stem and pulling out the fibrous outer layer(It is an option). This should leave you with the leaves and the tender stem parts. You can also clean it by rinsing it with water.
- Fill a cooking pot with water and bring to a boil.
- Once it boils, stir in salt and oil.
- Place the sweet potato leaves in the boiling water and blanch for only 20 seconds. Then, drain the leaves. Do not overblanch the leaves or else they will lose their crunch and become mushy.
- Prepare the garlic. You can crush or roughly chop the garlic.
- In a pan or wok, add the oil.
- Once the oil is hot, stir-fry the garlic and fermented black beans until fragrant.
- Turn the heat to high, add the sweet potato leaves, and give it a good mix.
- Season with salt, chicken bouillon powder, and oyster sauce.
- Mix the seasonings by rotating the leaves and stir-frying quickly.
- Adjust the seasoning to taste if needed.
- When the leaves are tender, transfer them to your serving plate.
