Can You Still Eat Sprouted Purple Sweet Potatoes? These Foods Are Still Safe to Eat After Sprouting

The purple sweet potato looks similar to the common sweet potato. Both its tender stem tips and leaves and its tubers can be eaten. Besides containing the nutrients found in ordinary sweet potatoes, it is also rich in selenium and anthocyanins. If you buy some and leave it for too long, it may sprout. So, can you still eat a purple sweet potato after it has sprouted?

I. A Brief Introduction to the Purple Sweet Potato!

1. What does a purple sweet potato look like?

It is also called black sweet potato or shao sweet potato. It is the tuber of a twining vine in the Convolvulaceae family, shaped like a palm, a club, or a cone. The skin is brown or black, and the flesh ranges from purple to deep purple.

2. Is the purple sweet potato a genetically modified food?

It is not a genetically modified food but a natural one. According to "Chinese Sweet Potato Cultivation Science," compiled in 1984, it clearly states that "the flesh color of sweet potato can be divided into purple, orange-red, apricot yellow, yellow, white, and so on," which shows that purple is one of its inherent flesh colors.

3. How do you eat purple sweet potato?

Its tender stem tips and leaves and its tubers are currently among the pollution-free, green, and organic foods. The tender stem tips and leaves can be stir-fried plain or cooked in soup, and the tubers can be steamed, boiled, made into porridge, used in pastries, made into pancakes, rolled into balls, steamed into buns, or made into rice balls.

II. Can You Still Eat a Purple Sweet Potato After It Has Sprouted?

1. A purple sweet potato can still be eaten after it has sprouted. It does not produce toxins, but its nutritional value is damaged and its taste declines. It is best to cut off the sprouted part as soon as possible. If there are only a few sprouts, cut off the sprouted parts and steam it before eating; if there are many sprouts, it is not recommended to eat it.

2. Many people think that a sprouted potato cannot be eaten, and that the same goes for purple sweet potato. In fact, the potato belongs to the Solanaceae family and produces solanine after sprouting. This toxin is mainly found in plants of the Solanaceae family, so it cannot be eaten; the purple sweet potato, however, belongs to the Convolvulaceae family and does not produce toxins after sprouting, so it can be eaten.

3. The purple sweet potato has a fairly high starch content. During sprouting, it produces enzymes that break down starch, and this breakdown process can produce toxins. In addition, a sprouted purple sweet potato is very prone to mold and rot, and eating it can easily lead to poisoning, so caution is needed.

4. After a purple sweet potato sprouts, its nutrients are largely transferred to the area around the young shoots to supply their growth. At this point, the purple sweet potato becomes soft, loses its sweetness, and carries a slight odor of raw sweet potato leaves, making it unsuitable for eating.

5. If you do not want it to sprout, pay attention to how you store it in normal times. Storage requires a dark, dry environment. Therefore, after buying purple sweet potatoes, first sun them for half a day to remove some moisture, then put them in a dry cardboard box and place it in a dark, dry place.

6. If a sprouted purple sweet potato cannot be eaten but you do not want to throw it away, you can plant it: first, cut the mouth of a plastic bottle evenly, put the sprouted purple sweet potato in, pour in water to submerge half of the sweet potato, and place it in a sunny spot, changing the water every day. Once it grows fine roots and young shoots, transplant it into soil; once it grows many leaves, you can pinch off the tender shoots to eat.

III. Which Foods Can Be Eaten After Sprouting?

1. Scallions, ginger, and garlic: These can be eaten after sprouting, but their nutritional value decreases and their taste is not very good. Take garlic, for example: after sprouting, it grows green garlic shoots, which contain no toxins, and the sprouted garlic itself also contains no toxins, so both can be eaten safely.

2. Radishes, cabbage, broccoli, and so on: These can be eaten after sprouting. Broccoli sprouts are rich in carotene, vitamin E, sulforaphane, and so on, while radish sprouts contain large amounts of vitamin K and folic acid.

3. Soybeans, mung beans, black beans, and so on: These can be eaten after sprouting. Once they sprout, they become soybean sprouts, mung bean sprouts, and black bean sprouts, which are the common bean sprouts sold in the market and are rich in vitamin C, vitamin E, chlorophyll, and other nutrients.

In summary: A purple sweet potato can be eaten after sprouting. Cut off the sprouted parts and steam it before eating. If there are too many sprouts, or if it has become moldy and rotten, it is not recommended to eat it. Besides purple sweet potato, sweet potato, ginger, scallions, garlic, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, soybeans, mung beans, black beans, and so on can also be eaten after sprouting, but potatoes, peanuts, and so on cannot be eaten after sprouting, to avoid poisoning.