Recipes for Kudzu?

Anybody ever cooked it? I've got a MAJOR growth issue in my yard and a friend from The Carolinas who told me that it is eaten in the South. Thinkin about selling it online. Just kidding. But I would happily give some away. All you have to do is put a bag around a vine and it'll fill up in a day. Promise to report back if I'm given good preparation advice.

http://home.att.net/~ejlinton/jelly.html

Doog, I found that website through Wikipedia, but I was hoping for personal accounts. You can come over and get some, try it in a recipe, and relate the results if you want. I would love to hear from someone about the taste/texture. They state that the "non-woody" parts are used for eating. I assume that's the leaves only. Got plenty of leaves. The vines are creepy and I would never cross them. I swear I can hear them whisper my name every time I walk through, just as they wrap around my ankles and threaten to stangle me.

My wife and I moved here from South Carolina and we'd like to congratulate you on your crop of Kudzu! Is one of the nicest things that we have the Army Corps of Engineers to thank for. Many communities in the Carolinas have annual Kudzu festivals, recipes range from soups to casseroles to burgers but most of them are barely edible. One of the best I've seen this kind of like the old Stone Soup recipe from our childhood storybooks. Start with Kudzu and keep adding stuff in order to make a good soup you can call it Kudzu Soup only because that's what you start with not what it's made from!

I have one for you:

Preheat oven to 350. In a heavy roasting pan place 1 brick and generous amount of Kudzu leaves cover with chicken stock and your favorite seasonings. Braise for 4 to 5 hours, remove from oven, discard the Kudzu and eat the brick.

Jackie, I was born in the south so I've seen a lot of Kudzu. When I saw your thread I immediately thought how much Kudzu leaves are the roughly the size and body of grape leaves, so why not stuff them?

Here's a recipe for stuffed kudzu leaves. Leave the stems alone and use only the smaller, most tender leaves of the plant. Stuffing is rice and ground beef or lamb. It sounds delicious.

As an aside, John (my bf) says as soon as they figure out the last few pieces of the puzzle re: cellulosic ethanol, we'll be good to go, with a giant supply of raw material to add to cornstalks and husks (as opposed to corn kernels).

Sigh. Faster, please, scientists!

Will they be using Kudzu to produce it? That would be an excellent use of the weed.

I haven't eaten any yet. I'm really not excited about it, either. I just doesn't seem like it'll be tasty. I felt a little nauseous earlier when I imagined eating it as a salad. But wow, what a gorgeous creature. It's covering a dead tree out back. Really brought life to an otherwise gravesite.

But wow, what a gorgeous creature. It's covering a dead tree out back. Really brought life to an otherwise gravesite.

Unfortunately, if it grows on a live tree it soon kills it. It's nearly impossible to kill, I think it thrives on Roundup!

I'm pretty sure the same people trying to convince us to eat kudzu are the same people who'd like for us to eat nutria, the swamp river rats.

In a perfect world, the Nutria would eat all of the Kudzu and be full and go to the Nutria afterworld.

Btw, still haven't tried the kudzu and I don't think it's in me to. I just keep picturing that nasty salad.