Every year when I purchase seeds for starting plants in the spring, I include something that I haven’t tried before. It keeps life interesting. This year it was basella alba – also known as malabar spinach. Starting those seeds requires scoring with a knife, soaking overnight and then planting in pots. I kept them in the greenhouse until frost dangers passed and then transplanted them in the herb garden.

Once in the ground, they grew slowly. I soon realized that unlike standard spinach greens, that plant needs heat for its growth spurt. Once the daily temperatures stayed above 90 degrees, the plants took off, creating large waxy leaves on a thick yet tender vine. Grasshoppers don’t seem to care for chomping on the leaves, so the plants are huge and have outgrown the trellis. It was time to figure out what to do with the strange tropical-like green vegetable.

I had read that the leaves could be used similar to spinach in a salad, so I picked a few. The larger leaves released a little slime when they were broken from the vine. It smelled like freshly mown green grass and it tasted – how I imagined – green grass would taste. For dinner that night, I used a large leaf to make a wrap for chicken salad. The boys chose to just make a sandwich with bread instead. My wrap was okay, but the thick leaf released a small amount of slime with each bite – not a happy story. I’ve decided that when eating raw malabar spinach, one should stick to the smallest leaves (less slimy) and mix with other greens in a salad.

I didn’t give up, though. I found that the cooked greens have potential. Another evening I fried bacon and sauteed onions and garlic. Then I dumped about a dozen large leaves – washed and quartered – into the pan. I tossed them around, lowered the heat and covered with a lid. It took longer to wilt than spinach. But once wilted, it looked and tasted just like spinach. I decided to make creamed (malabar) spinach to go with grilled steaks and roasted potatoes. Now that’s a happy ending!

Creamed Spinach
2 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained (or a very large bunch of fresh spinach)
1/3 c. fat free Half & Half
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch nutmeg, freshly grated is best

Fry the bacon until crisp. Add onion, garlic and a little salt and pepper. Cook until the onion softens and the garlic is aromatic. Add spinach. Toss to coat with bacon grease. Reduce heat. If using thawed spinach, cook until warm. If spinach is fresh, cover with a lid and steam until wilted.
Remove lid and add Half & Half, Parmesan cheese and nutmeg. Stir and continue cooking until thickened. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

My cream sauce was still too wet – perhaps because malabar spinach has more juice than regular spinach – so I added 2 teaspoons of flour and stirred. The cream sauce thickened to a nice consistency after about 5 more minutes of cooking.

I like having another fresh green option at this time of year. Malabar spinach, with a little more trial and some error, will probably turn out to be a good (maybe not great) alternative to store-bought spinach. It’s difficult to imagine picking, blanching and freezing it for use this winter, though. We’ll see.

I have a purple-hull pea update for those who remember me having more peas to shell than I could process. One of the Leader readers advertised a pea sheller in the classifieds. I contacted him, purchased and brought it home. I couldn’t be more pleased and shelled over 3 bushels of dried peas in less than an hour. Success!