The Truth About Sprouted Potatoes

Nearly $300 million dollars worth of this popular tuber ends up in the landfill — it also sprouts, turns green, and becomes poisonous. So what's one to do with this dirty potato?

#Potatoes #Produce #Cooking

What is a sprouted potato? | 0:00
Buy just enough | 1:39
Planting sprouted potatoes | 2:13
How about that compost bin? | 3:32
Are sprouted potatoes safe to eat? | 4:18
Recipes to use up sprouted potatoes | 5:33

[MashedFood]

Do you toss your potatoes if they start to sprout?

[rgfisher]

I eat them, always have. Never had a bad reaction in 74 years.

[patriciabutler]

I a 75 and still going strong, and have never discarded sprouted potatoes, just rub them off!! Just another thing to sell more stuff more expensively, like sell and use by dates!!

[rudybriskar]

I just break the sprouts off. I leave the skins on. I've never gotten sick from it. I have no intention of changing anything either.

[masonjarhillbilly]

I just knock off the sprouts and cook the potatoes. I cut out bad spots. I also use potatoes as a bug out food in the woods. I plant the eyes and let fate decide. I have over a dozen established "volunteer" colonies. I do visit them in the fall and do a light harvest. I get about 200 lbs. I could get about 4 times as much. I no longer plant potatoes in the garden.

[lisanull]

🙄😂
I've eaten sprouted & green potatoes my entire life. Gasp! I've even eaten a potato that had a rotten area. (you simply cut the area away from the rest of the potato) omg
This is why so much perfectly edible food ends up in landfills, too much misinformation being passed around.

[geofjones]

When I was about 10 years old, I was told potato sprouts were poisonous. So I have always carefully removed them. I have always enjoyed the crisp skin on a baked spud. Never seemed to stunt my growth!

[hokeypokeypots]

Potatoes turn green when they're exposed to light, so keeping them in a dark, cool place will lengthen their storage life considerably and slow down any sprouting.

The sprouts do not make the potatoes toxic. They're brittle and can be knocked off with a fingernail before the potato is peeled and cooked.

Potatoes contain a high amount of potassium...a lot of which is in the skin, so peeling potatoes reduces the amount of this beneficial nutrient.

If you keep potatoes in a dark, cool place...not the refrigerator...they will last for months. They'll get wrinkly, but will still be safe to eat.

If you don't have a dark, cool place to store them, it's best to buy a few loose ones fresh from the store instead of a bag...and check them for any green color before you buy them.

[No-Name-fp]

Can you do a NO MUSIC version, please?

[kellywright]

Two things... First, when we were kids back in the sixties and early seventies, my Mom and great aunts would occasionally give us a slice of raw potatoes when they were making dinner. Never harmed us and it was tolerable to snack on. Second, you didn't mention storing potatoes and onions either together or near each other. I have seen AND smelled the results of that and it's not something you'd want to clean up either! I am amazed when I tell that to people and they think I'm nuts. One person was like that doesn't make any sense. I suggested that she take one potato and one onion, place them together in a paper bag, close the bag and placed where you would normally keep your potatoes in your pantry and then check the bag in like three or four days. Four days later she called and said, "Yep, note to self, never EVER place onions and potatoes together! God, I was worried that I wasn't going to get that smell out of my pantry!" Got another convert that day...

[azz]

I use my potatoes with or without sprouts

[paulturner]

I typically plant potatoes that have gone past perfect. We do not remove the skins as they provide fiber.

[lindamoses]

I was raised in Idaho where potatoes are a staple. Sprouts might be poisonous but not the potatoes. We have peeled many very green potatoes and sprouted potatoes.

[donaldvincent]

When I was in 1st grade each student suspended a potato over a bowl of water to observe how it grew. After the project I took mine home. My mother gave me a nice vase and it grew in my window until was 18 with just occasional watering and a trim. I was really bummed out when we moved to another state and it got discarded.

[michaelmenzinger]

Like my Mom and Grandma ever said. "Pull off the sprouts, if the potatoe is not to soft and not green its good to go"

[dantoth]

Just a suggestion for anyone who has access to a plot of ground. What I do with all of my tubers potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips etc is I have a low spot in my yard and line it with leaves off the trees then I lay my tubers down and then over them with at least 12 to 18 inches of raked leaves then place on old heavy blanket on top to keep them from blowing away. It protects it from the harshest freeze and keeps them absolutely fresh.

[tommywolfe]

I have a few potatoes like that in my kitchen right now, and I was thinking about cutting that stuff off and making something with them. They are fine. I dont like them when they get too soft, but its whatever. I am fine and they still taste good.

[ralphbalfoort]

While serving on KP duty during Army basic training, I used to drive the other guys on my detail up a wall. When cutting spuds for home fries, I'd go, "One, two for the Army, one for me." Yeah, I'd eat about one slice in every three or four that went into the meal that day.

[petergreenwald]

I buy a huge bag of potatoes when they are on some super sale and bake them all and put them in the freezer. Quick to cook in the nuker and easy to slice after a 1 min thaw in the nuker to then put in a pan to fry. Easy to keep frozen. Con is they don't make really good mashed potatoes, but I like them sliced and fried mostly.

[jeniferjordan]

Potting soil works for sprouting and do nicely