Taro leaves

Colocasia esculenta · Leafy green

40 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 freshThe all-rounder: boiled, steamed, or braised in coconut milk.Everyday best

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 to look for, from crisp, deep green, stalks stiff to yellow, limp, soft-rotting at the stalk.

What one gives you

60%

Usable yield

10 g · stalk, midrib and tough blades off

16.7 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 6× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

Near-saturated, 90-95%. A huge thin blade sheds water fast: left uncovered at 28 °C it lost 63% of its weight in eight days.

Airflow

Perforated bag, not sealed

Perforated, never sealed tight. They respire hard, and in a closed bag the trapped heat and gas break the tissue down and rot it.

Yellows fast beside bananas and mangoes

Keep the bundle clear of bananas, mangoes and papaya — ethylene speeds up exactly the yellowing and decay these leaves fall to anyway.

Preparing