Tomato plants are poisonous, right? Actually, not at all, according to a New York Times article that a coworker sent me on Thursday.
I’d bought into the common wisdom that tomato plants, along with potato plants and many other members of the nightshade family, contained poisons that rendered them inedible. The article stated, however, that the alkaloid in tomato plants, tomatine, has no history of poisoning humans or livestock, and that there was at least a brief record of the leaves being used in cooking, most notably in a tomato sauce served at the landmark Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse. Furthering the argument that tomatine is “probably not a killer,” Harold McGee, the article’s author, mentioned that the alkaloid is present in significant amounts in green tomatoes. There’s definitely a long history of eating those, often in fried form, often in the South.
I consider myself to be both a curious eater and a curious gardener, so I had to put this knowledge to the test. At the same time, I thought I’d also try my first preparation of “cossack asparagus,” the shoots of the aquatic cattail that I have growing in the pond.
First, I cut some tomato leaves off one of the plants. Next I trimmed some of the cattail shoots that had escaped into the pond from their pot. I removed the toughest outer leaves from the cattail shoots and rinsed them.
I chopped the cattail stems and the tomato leaves, and added them to a stir-fry of ginger and Japanese shishito peppers from the garden. If I were a little more adventurous, I’d have left off soy sauce so that I could have tasted the ingredients better. But I chickened out. In went a drizzle of soy.
The conclusion? I served a little side portion to John without telling him what the ingredients were.
“At first I thought they [the cattails] were green onions,” he said. “But they didn’t taste like them. And then I thought they lemongrass. But I was able to chew them.”
Such gushing enthusiasm! But after he made the reserved comments above, he agreed that the ingredients were indeed edible, and that we could have them again. And yes, I lived to write about eating both of these new ingredients.
Next time I’ll try simpler preparations so that I can better enjoy the individual flavors. Maybe a pesto sauce with raw tomato leaves. (I found that the cooking removed most of their flavor.) Or maybe I’ll try preparing a side dish of cattail stems steamed like asparagus.
One of my gardening resolutions for the year was to explore the lesser-known edible qualities of my garden plants. I’m glad that I did.
I was forwarded the same article, but wanted some other input on the tomato leaves. I’m glad you volunteered as guinea pig. It sounded like the leaves needed a lower heat (like simmered in a sauce), since you said the stir fry took away too much flavor. I was resistant to trying, but now I might.
Glad you tested the cossack asparagus as well.
Remarkable! I would never have had the courage or been as resourceful, James.
You’ve revealed yet another impressive character trait.
As a child my parents felt the need to feed us strange and bitter things they found to edible. To this day, I have a hard time eating some greens because they remind me of those experiences. I am sure my parents were just being resourceful but I think it was just an excuse to try out the hippie lifestyle. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
I am glad you shared this recipe. Maybe I can grow up a little and try something new again.
Rosey
You are one brave gardener and connoisseur.
Great post. I will definitely try tomato leaves when we get back! My bravest (craziest) culinary experiment was in 1996, right before we left NJ to move to CA. We were having a big cycada year in NJ and the NY Times had an article on it with a recipe for cooking them. My son, 16 at the time, and I both tasted them. I blanched them and then stir fried them – yes in soy sauce. It tasted okay, but was way beyond my comfort level. Glad I tried it though. Tomato leaves should be easier!
So are you striving for tasty, or settling for edible?
Brad, it’s now several days later and I’m still alive, so I guess that counts as proof that the parts were edible. I suspect it’ll take a few more tries before I figure out how to really use these ingredients to their best advantage.
Alice, thank you. It was a fun adventure.
Rosey Pollen, there are a lot of things that my parents fed me that I didn’t like at the time but have come to really love. But then there are a few foods that I’ve never come around to enjoying. It’s good your parents were curious and wanted to share some of that curiosity.
Tina, there’s that saying about the first person to eat an oyster being a really brave person. But I don’t quite put myself in that category because others had gone there first about deciding these things are edible.
Barbara, that’s really funny about the soy sauce. I suppose cicadas shouldn’t be that different from grasshoppers, which seem to be a staple several places. But I can’t say I’ve had either.
Susan, I’ll settle for edible for a first step! I’ll work on tasty when I get to play with more of these ingredients.