I have pulled out my yam beans at long last and am going to eat them. I had them planted at the other house and they were going so well that I couldn’t leave them. If they taste any good I will plant more.
There is not a lot of information about the yam bean, not in my books anyway. The only book I have it in is my “Tropical Food Gardens” book, which is a really good book to have in the collection. It is about growing fruit, herbs and veges in the tropics and sub-tropics.
So, a yam bean is not really a yam, and you eat the bulb, apparently it tastes like an apple when raw and a water chestnut when cooked. You can use it in Asian dishes as a substitute for water chestnut and bamboo shoots; you can also eat it raw with dip.
The seeds and leaves are poisonous, and the flowers are lovely, they are a vine and I had one of the pots near the outdoor shower and it climbed up that. I have grown mine by seed but apparently you can also use pieces of the tuber, I have more seeds so will just run with that.
So, I made a stir fry and added in the yam beans, they do taste apple like when raw. Of course I made too much as I am used to cooking for three, therefore I couldn't eat it all but it was yum.
I had home grown yam beans, of course, home grown kang kong, betel leaf and abika. Locally grown zucchini and homemade mango sauce from home grown mangoes (from the other house), all this with free range chicken and brown rice. There were other things in it but not home grown or locally grown or home made :) The yam beans where the highlight and today I am going to find space in the small garden and plant more, if I can. Gotta try new things or life gets too boring :p
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