Imfino Izintanga: Cooked Pumpkin Leaves

Imfino Izintanga: Cooked Pumpkin Leaves

Any South African restaurant serving indigenous food will have imfino (also known as morogo or muroho) on its menu, and many visitors to the 2010 Soccer World Cup were duly induced into its ambrosial delights. For those interested in knowing more about imfino, particularly the wild varieties indigenous to South Africa, read my post: Imfino, Murogo, Muroho: Africa's Indigenous "Leafy Greens" otherwise continue reading to discover how to harvest and cook pumpkin leaves. Pumpkin leaves are highly nutritious, full of all kinds of micro-nutrients, have a low GI, and unlikely to cause weight gain, so what are you waiting for - go harvest and cook them already!

One of the varieties of imfino (or leafy greens) which is particularly delicate and delightful, although not indigenous, is that of cooked pumpkin leaves. Having asked Bernard if he would be able to source some imfino for us, he duly and happily brought seeds of this particular pumpkin which we are assured makes the best imfino; unfortunately we do not yet know what variety of pumpkin it is, though it has silver tracery on its leaves.

Bernard with a harvest of freshly picked pumpkin leaves

Traditionally, in farms in South Africa, the compost heap was covered from view by a large, sprawling pumpkin which is not only aesthetically pleasing but since pumpkins are "heavy feeders" and will also take over your entire vegetable garden given half a chance it makes perfect practical sense too. Intent on harvesting the leaves only, we do not mind the depredations of the monkeys in terms of the fruit and hence it remains outside the monkey-proof vegetable cage. The imfino made with the tenderest and youngest pumpkin leaves is greatly relished by all of us on a regular basis. 

Imfino Izintanaga: Cooked Pumpkin Leaves Recipe

Boiling the pumpkin leaves:

500 grams pumpkin leaves

500 ml water (or enough to cover the pumpkin leaves)

¼ teaspoon salt

How to cook them, with onions: 

1 large onion

2-3 garlic cloves, to taste

One stock cube

30 ml water

2 Tablespoons oil

The above portions will feed four hungry people. 

Harvest the growing tips of the pumpkins, including the smallest and softest leaves, together with approximately a 20cm (8 inch) length of the stem.

What you harvest: the soft new growth and tender leaves only

You will need to 'skin' any length of the thicker stem, to eradicate its long hairs, while the little hairs on the smaller stems are generally left.

How to skin the hairs off the thicker, older stems

You also must nip off any of the long tendrils as these have proved to be too tough to eat; what you will end up with then is something that looks like this:

The growth points, devoid of hairs and tendrils are ready to be chopped up and cooked

Wash the leaves in cold water, and undertake this part of the process carefully since they tend to harbour sand and crunchy bits are not palatable. 

Chop the leaves and stem up fine.

Boil the chopped pumpkin leaves in the 500 ml of water which must just cover the leaves, together with a quarter of a teaspoon of salt. Be careful not to over-boil the leaves, they must retain their bright green colour. 

Strain leaves and discard the water.

In a pan, fry up garlic and onion until both are translucent in colour and then add the stock, dissolved in water, together with the cooked pumpkin leaves, and stir until the water is absorbed. 

Imfino is invariably served in some kind of combination with pap or uphuthu - a coarsely ground mealie meal, otherwise known as white maize or white corn, in this case, also served with boerewors, a spicy sausage.

The imfino izintanga is the green vegetable on the right, served with boerwors, pap and some tomato relish 

My thanks to Taa and Bernard, without whom I would never have been privileged to taste the delicate flavours of cooked pumpkin leaves.

Taa, who taught me how to harvest and cook pumpkin leaves