Apples were a real luxury when I was growing up in the 1950s. Post-war Philippine laws imposed strict import controls to conserve dollars yet favored the entry of goods from the US. As a result, my generation knew only two kinds of apples: Red Delicious and Yellow Delicious. We never imagined that Japanese and Chinese apples would flood the market, outselling native fruits, which are slowly disappearing.

We had apples only twice a year: Christmas and July 4. Apples for Christmas is understandable, but why July 4? July 4, US Independence Day, was when the US military bases were open to the public. Like many Filipinos, we took advantage of this annual event, the only time pesos were allowed as currency in the American enclave. There were carnival rides, stores full of US-made clothes, bookstores selling fashion magazines, PX stores (like our present-day supermarkets) shelves brimming with processed and frozen meats, steaks, ham, bacon, turkey, sausages.
Sangley Point US Naval Base in Cavite City was paradise. We broke open our piggy banks to buy candy bars: Mars, Milky Way, and Hershey. But first we bought our allowed limit of two Red Delicious and two Yellow Delicious.

Auntie Helen Jose, a nutrition student at St. Paul’s, annually baked apple pies for the big Jose family. There were so many cousins, aunts, and uncles that she often ran out of apples and “cheated” by mixing in several sliced sayote.
Decades later, importation of fruits was liberalized, lowering the retail price of apples and other food items. Today, with sayote selling as high as a hundred per kilo, it is cheaper to use real apples when baking apple pie or apple crumble. Sayote is finally recognized for its own merits.

Misclassified latecomer
Most Filipinos consider sayote as an upland vegetable harvested only in cool mountainous areas. This could be because the vegetable was first planted in Northern Luzon highlands in the early 1920s. It would take several decades before sayote became a regular ingredient in Pilipino recipes like chop suey and ginisang gulay.

Today, thanks to the internet and social media, sayote is finally getting recognized for its versatility as well as for healing qualities. It has a firm, crisp texture similar to singkamas and a mildly sweet flavor comparable to cucumbers and apples. Locally, sayote is most commonly sautéed with meat and other vegetables (ginisang sayote) or simply sautéed with butter alongside other firm vegetables.
Another method of cooking sayote is by steaming, like corn, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. The most common use of sayote is as substitute for green papaya in tinola and atsara. To pickle sayote, julienne it, then place it in a jar with a tight lid. Pickle with boiled water, sugar, salt, vinegar, and whole peppercorns. Store in the refrigerator.

Rich in vitamins and minerals
Being a healthy carbohydrate, it’s a good source of folate and vitamin C and amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein and therefore numerous brain chemicals. Traditional medicine in Mexico uses the plant to dissolve kidney stones by drinking a tea of the leaves. Its diuretic properties also are used to reduce hypertension.

Sayote promotes heart health, prevents cancer, lowers blood pressure, regulates blood sugar, prevents fat accumulation in the liver, fights inflammation, and slows the aging process.

Sayote contains vitamins and minerals, including loads of vitamin C and folic acid, plus moderate amounts of vitamin K, B6, manganese, copper, and zinc. It also contains small amounts of calcium and iron. Each medium-sized fresh one contains only 39 calories.

Sayote is a low-glycemic food. The glycemic load of a single cup serving is estimated to range between one and two, regardless of whether it is cooked or raw. A low glycemic food is digested and metabolized slowly and therefore raises blood sugar at a slower rate than food items with higher glycemic indexes.
Sayote provides a number of health-boosting vitamins and minerals. A single serving provides 123 micrograms of folate, or 31 percent of the recommended daily intake. It also provides over 10 grams, or about 17 percent of the recommended intake, of vitamin C. Other vitamins include vitamin K, vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin E.

Minerals in this vegetable include manganese, copper, zinc, potassium, magnesium, and a small amount of calcium, iron, and phosphorus.
Sayote benefits include helping to boost the health of pregnant women and unborn babies through its high folate content. It’s also known to be a general digestive health and liver booster.