Mulberry leaves as a vegetable

One difficulty with novel gardening solutions such as forest gardens is finding ways to use unusual crops.
Mulberry leaves, for instance. Way nutritious, small footprint, drought tolerant. One of my most successful crops.
Almost no recipes.
I find them a bit odd. No bitterness or tartness, very bland. Slightly sandpapery texture, but not too chewy like grape leaves.
I almost always pressure steam them first, as they're tough.
Yes, I know they'd be more tender early in the season, but my tree is young and I'm just shaping it, so I want to let it grow first. Pollarding for leaves at the end of the growing season instead of dormant pruning.
After steaming I cool them and dress them in lemon juice and olive oil. I suppose an ohitashi would be good, too.
Or I braise them and season them to be salty and savory.
Tonight it was saute onions, add tofu, add steamed mulberry greens, simmer in a sauce of fermented tofu and fish sauce, garnish with roasted sesame oil. Weird but good over rice.
Do you use them? How?

My use is not exactly astonishing, kinda boring really. We dehydrate and use as tea. Iced tea.

New leaves have been used in stir frys. They were ok.

Thanks for this!  I never knew they were edible for humans.  They grow like weeds in some parts of the country e.g., abandoned lots in Philadelphia (I don't live there anymore.)  I will plant some.

 

Ellen Lewis wrote:One difficulty with novel gardening solutions such as forest gardens is finding ways to use unusual crops.
Mulberry leaves, for instance. Way nutritious, small footprint, drought tolerant. One of my most successful crops.
Almost no recipes.
I find them a bit odd. No bitterness or tartness, very bland. Slightly sandpapery texture, but not too chewy like grape leaves.
I almost always pressure steam them first, as they're tough.
Yes, I know they'd be more tender early in the season, but my tree is young and I'm just shaping it, so I want to let it grow first. Pollarding for leaves at the end of the growing season instead of dormant pruning.
After steaming I cool them and dress them in lemon juice and olive oil. I suppose an ohitashi would be good, too.
Or I braise them and season them to be salty and savory.
Tonight it was saute onions, add tofu, add steamed mulberry greens, simmer in a sauce of fermented tofu and fish sauce, garnish with roasted sesame oil. Weird but good over rice.
Do you use them? How?

Dave Kett wrote:Thanks for this!  I never knew they were edible for humans.  They grow like weeds in some parts of the country e.g., abandoned lots in Philadelphia (I don't live there anymore.)  I will plant some.

Plus they have a great deal of protein among other nutrients.

The leaves are also used as highly nutritious feed for domesticated animals. The average crude protein content of fresh mulberry leaves ranges from 6.0 to 6.9%, which is substantially higher than that of vegetables (2%) (Gopalan et al., 1971).

This study was undertaken to determine the proximate composition, vitamins, minerals and the antinutritional factor tannic acid in leaves of six genotypes of mulberry. The results showed that in fresh mulberry leaves the proximate composition values ranged from 71.13 to 76.68% for moisture, from 4.72 to 9.96% for crude protein, from 4.26 to 5.32% for total ash, from 8.15 to 11.32% for Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), from 0.64 to 1.51% for crude fat, from 8.01 to 13.42% for carbohydrate and from 69 to 86 kcal/100 g for energy. In dried mulberry leaf powder, moisture ranged from 5.11 to 7.24%, crude protein from 15.31 to 30.91%, total ash from 14.59 to 17.24%, NDF from 27.60 to 36.66%, crude fat from 2.09 to 4.93%, carbohydrate from 9.70 to 29.64% and energy from 113 to 224 kcal/100 g. Among vitamins ascorbic acid and beta-carotene were found to range from 160 to 280 mg/100 g and from 10,000.00 to 14,688.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in fresh mulberry leaves and from 100 to 200 mg/100 g and from 8438.00 to 13,125.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in dried mulberry leaf powder. The minerals iron, zinc and calcium were observed in the ranges of 4.70-10.36 mg/100 g, 0.22-1.12 mg/100 g and 380-786 mg/100 g, respectively, for fresh mulberry leaves, and 19.00-35.72 mg/100 g, 0.72-3.65 mg/100 g and 786.66-2226.66 mg/100 g, respectively, for dried mulberry leaf powder. The tannic acid ranged from 0.04 to 0.08% in fresh leaves and from 0.13 to 0.36% in dried leaf powder.

Diffierent individual trees or different species can vary in flavor. I just tasted one that's sweeter than the one in my yard. If you don't care for them, try another before you give up.

I've got some white mulberry trees growing, though they're young yet. Several small studies show statistically significant benefits from eating/drinking mulberry leaves, as it lowers your blood glucose levels and makes you less insulin resistant. One meta-study has been done that I know of, found here: https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593624/

although some say that the studies done so far have been too small to really tell. I don't think bigger ones will be done, as it's something many people can grow easily - little incentive to do bigger studies.

As far as preparation, I've only gone with tea so far.
Kudos to you for trying new things!

Perhaps worth mentioning the Lori McClintock incident, and reminding people to use moderation...
https://www.diabetesdaily.com/blog/does-white-mulberry-leaf-help-diabetes-705246/

Thanks for this info as well.  Just logged onto One Green World nursery site.  They have a number of varieties.  Next time I drive to Portland I will stop by and sample the leaves.  Seriously.  Mulberries would be a good addition to my place.  https://onegreenworld.com/?s=mulberry

Plus they have a great deal of protein among other nutrients.

The leaves are also used as highly nutritious feed for domesticated animals. The average crude protein content of fresh mulberry leaves ranges from 6.0 to 6.9%, which is substantially higher than that of vegetables (2%) (Gopalan et al., 1971).

This study was undertaken to determine the proximate composition, vitamins, minerals and the antinutritional factor tannic acid in leaves of six genotypes of mulberry. The results showed that in fresh mulberry leaves the proximate composition values ranged from 71.13 to 76.68% for moisture, from 4.72 to 9.96% for crude protein, from 4.26 to 5.32% for total ash, from 8.15 to 11.32% for Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), from 0.64 to 1.51% for crude fat, from 8.01 to 13.42% for carbohydrate and from 69 to 86 kcal/100 g for energy. In dried mulberry leaf powder, moisture ranged from 5.11 to 7.24%, crude protein from 15.31 to 30.91%, total ash from 14.59 to 17.24%, NDF from 27.60 to 36.66%, crude fat from 2.09 to 4.93%, carbohydrate from 9.70 to 29.64% and energy from 113 to 224 kcal/100 g. Among vitamins ascorbic acid and beta-carotene were found to range from 160 to 280 mg/100 g and from 10,000.00 to 14,688.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in fresh mulberry leaves and from 100 to 200 mg/100 g and from 8438.00 to 13,125.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in dried mulberry leaf powder. The minerals iron, zinc and calcium were observed in the ranges of 4.70-10.36 mg/100 g, 0.22-1.12 mg/100 g and 380-786 mg/100 g, respectively, for fresh mulberry leaves, and 19.00-35.72 mg/100 g, 0.72-3.65 mg/100 g and 786.66-2226.66 mg/100 g, respectively, for dried mulberry leaf powder. The tannic acid ranged from 0.04 to 0.08% in fresh leaves and from 0.13 to 0.36% in dried leaf powder.

This past spring I planted a black mulberry bush. I didn’t have much hope for it but to my surprise it is growing nicely with supplemental water and lots of compost.
Ellen’s post nudged me to go out and taste the leaves. Just like she said, “No bitterness or tartness, very bland.”
When I don’t know what to do with a leafy green that is edible and unfamiliar, the mortar and pestle is my first line of experimentation. After all, the unfamiliar leaves can easily be covered up by other ingredients.
I gather 5 leaves from the 3’ bush and bring them into the kitchen.
First I remove the tough stems from the leaves then tear them up and add them to the mortar. Using coarse salt, I smash the two ingredients into a beautiful bright green paste. The taste of salty chlorophyl is fine: neither bitter nor sweet but fresh and zingy with the salt.
To the mashed leaves and salt, I pound a couple of black pepper corns and taste again. Now the peppery bite overwhelms the subtle mix.
Time for some nuts and herbs to mellow the pesto out. To the 5 mulberry leaves, I add 5 basil leaves and 2 toasted walnut halves (they’re in season and handy). A dash of EVOO and this is mixture sings. I clean out the mortar with my bread.
The added nutrition of the mulberry seems like a great way to make infinite pesto possibilities even healthier. I’m eager to try adding fresh herbs, garlic, pecorino, and/or anchovies.
Thanks for your inspiration Ellen!