Taro leaves
Colocasia esculenta · Leafy green
Top 10 pairings
Taro leaves are the large, heart-shaped foliage of the taro plant (Colocasia esculenta), the same tropical aroid grown for its starchy corm. Eaten as a leafy green across Asia, Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean, they must always be thoroughly cooked — raw leaves bristle with needle-like calcium-oxalate crystals that sting the mouth and throat.
Picking a good onedrag
Crisp, deep green, stalks stiffYellow, limp, soft-rotting at the stalk
Shop freshEveryday bestThe all-rounder: boiled, steamed, or braised in coconut milk.
Leaf bladeGreen, blades relaxed but still flat
The petioleStill firm, the cut end drying and pale
The drapeLeans over slowly, still lifting itself
Smell at the bundleGreen and neutral, almost nothing
What you get from one
60%
Edible part
10 g · stalk, midrib and tough blades off
16.7 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 6× longer than the counter.
90-95%
Humidity
Perforated bag, not sealed
Airflow