From Seed To Feed: Cooking With Tomato...Leaves?

On the last Friday of each month in our "From Seed To Feed" series, we post tips on how to bring your harvest to your dinner table.  There's no point in growing delicious vegetables, if you don't know what to do with them!

​As the final summer tomato harvest approaches, a question arises that you might not have thought to ask: can you eat tomato leaves?  My fiance, Justin, and I were inspired to ask this question after having a delicious tomato salad at Dallas's famous Lucia restaurant this summer.  The salad had a dressing made from tomato leaf oil, and we immediately knew we had to replicate it at home.  We asked our server how it was made, and he informed us that they puree the leaves, add them to olive oil, and squeeze it through a cheese cloth.  Simple enough, and it worked!  We used it as a replacement for olive oil on a caprese salad, and it was fantastic.

Do not try this with store-bought tomatoes.  We are referring to the leaves on the plant itself, not the small leaves attached to the stem because those are too fibrous to eat.  Contrary to popular belief, you can eat tomato leaves.  ​So why do so many people think they are poisonous? Tomatoes (and eggplant, potatoes, and peppers) are a part of the nightshade family.  Nightshades also includes plants famously toxic to humans, like oleander and larkspur. That’s why “nightshade” is often associated with “deadly nightshade.”  Tomatoes do contain some of the harmful compounds, but their leaves, stems, and fruit will not hurt you.  You would need to eat over two pounds of tomato leaves to cause any harm.  So go easily on this stuff!

Now that you know they are safe, how do you eat tomato leaves? 

From Portland chef Jenn Louis's phenomenally informative cookbook, The Book Of Greens:

• “Do not throw your tomato leaves away when you harvest them from the garden! They can be gathered throughout the season and cooked like any of the greens defined as sturdy in the introduction to this book." And "sturdy” includes vegetable tops like carrot, turnip, beet sweet potato and cauliflower greens, plus collards, kale, cabbage and other produce that generally takes longer to become tender.
• The leaves do sport a strong herbal aroma, she adds, and recommends blending them into a pesto, combined with mint, basil, and other garden herbs. 
• At the restaurant, she blanches, dries and blends the leaves into pasta dough, and serves the pasta with butter and fresh tomatoes.  "They are a little fuzzy sometimes, so cook them; you don't want to eat raw. I have a recipe for putting them in pasta, basically blanching them, then putting them in with the egg and the liquid, and making your pasta with them. They're delicious, have a great flavor, and I love cooking with them. Same with squash vine leaves. People don't think you can eat the leaves from your zucchini plant. There's a wonderful Sicilian soup, and they use the squash leaves."

​Can you think of a better way to celebrate the end of tomato season? 

If you are in Dallas and ready to start a garden this fall, we would love to help.  Click Book Now on Facebook, or click Services on pottingwithpotter.com to setup a consult in the coming weeks.  Happy eating!