LOH Contest #81 ~ My Favorite Vegetable

For my kind of person who loves using different vegetables for different meals, I think I will need critical thinking to be able to answer the question;

If you plan to grow a vegetable garden, what is your favorite vegetable to grow, and what dishes do you use it for? Feel free to include a special recipe using that vegetable

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I love using fresh vegetable leaves rather than using the packaged vegetable or spices because the fresh vegetables usually give an enticing aroma and taste to food better than the packaged vegetables secondly for me, I have different vegetables I use for different meals especially if I am aiming for a particular taste and aroma.

An example is pumpkin leaf, which can be used for almost all assorted types of meals but I am yet to see someone use it in preparing stew, instead of using pumpkin leaf for stew, curry, or scent leaf is substituted for stew. While some people enjoy combining two to three vegetables in a particular meal but I on the other hand only make use of one vegetable for one particular meal except it is called for because whenever I am cooking or before I start cooking, I always have an idea of how I want my dish to taste, look and perceive and as such I will go for a particular vegetable that will give me exactly what I had imagined.

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So, when it comes to vegetables, I am not selective but if I am to choose a particular vegetable I don't mind using and planting in my garden, it would be FLUTED PUMPKIN LEAF

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It is scientifically known as TelfairiaOccidentalis, a tropical vine plant native to West Africa but occurs mostly in its cultivated form in various parts of southern Nigeria. It is locally known as Ugu leaf and it has so many nutritious benefits when consumed daily

It is used to cook pumpkin soup, can also be used to spice up meals or it can be squeezed to extract the juice for consumption. Even doctors recommend this leaf for anyone having issues with low blood count because it helps improve the blood count.

I was made to understand that it contains iron, mineral, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and other rich nutrients.

For me, I enjoy using it to cook almost all my meals because it has got a delicious taste of its own and when added to a meal makes the meal even more mouth-watering but I enjoy it most when I cook Porridge Plantain and Beans and ***Rice and Beans, *** because the aroma and taste of the food are never the same when it is added, it is in fact out of the word.

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This is an already sliced fluted pumpkin set aside and ready to be added to my meal

These are simple and fast meals that my lovely fluted pumpkin leaf was added to the fried egg especially to make the meal more sumptuous.

These are meals that I added little fluted pumpkins just to spice up the meal and not make it look too boring.

The first picture is of coconut rice and the other is of spaghetti with egg.