Food - Samphire recipes. Seabeans. I read this post with great interest when it was first posted and came away with more questions than answers. Cape Chef, To me, this made no sense. This means that you could literally be eating any plant whose seeds happend to find their way into the vast ocean waters regardless of its edibility. In other words (humorously): The definition by which you have proposed would result in the following: Seabean sprouts: "The plants shown here were sprouted from some "soft" seeds found at Cocoa Beach, Florida. :confused: Now, upon further research, to elaborate on what chrose and Chefkell have posted, here is more information I found to be of great interest and geared toward the horticultural aspects of "seabeans": Marsh Samphire = Salicornia europaea Eaten boiled with meat or fish (especially), fresh or blanched in salads, pickled by numerous methods, and used as a salt substitute.
"In Phoenix, the succulent sprout salicornia sells for $10 a pound at Whole Foods. More information on Seabeans. Ingredient Spotlight: Sea Beans. Sea Beans: Much More than a Weird, Random Vegetable. Languishing in cardboard boxes near the mushroom sections in local Fairway stores these next few weeks are Sea Beans, mysterious short stalks of a dark green vegetable, looking like something you might find washed up on the beach, but maybe a bit more edible. According to Elizabeth Schneider’s Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, Sea Beans (aka Salicornia) grow wild in warmer months all over- in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
“Salicornia is not seaweed, as it is often described,” she writes, “nor is it a cactus, which it slightly resembles.” Eaten raw or cooked, its flavor can best be described as sea salty intense, with a sort of grassy asparagus aftertaste. When fresh, Sea Beans are crunchy like snap peas. At the tail end of their one-week refrigerator shelf life, older sea beans can be revived with a five-minute soak in ice water. Taste Test: Sea beans. Last week, my cousin and I went to a lovely dinner party hosted by forageSF, a wild foods community in San Francisco. One of the eight courses was a green salad with beets and foraged sea beans. It was the first time I've ever eaten sea beans. They are a delightful addition to my growing list of favorite greens. I've seen wild sea beans growing along the coast of Northern California, but I never knew they were actually good to eat. The official name for sea beans is salicornia (it's the only word I know that rhymes with California!)
Sea beans have been around forever, but it's only recently that we've started to see them pop up at farmer's markets and at local grocery stores. Every installment of Taste Test will explore recipes, the science, and some history behind a specific food item. Image via Migraine Meals. Sea Beans. Salicornia. Salicornia is a genus of succulent, halophyte (salt tolerant) plants that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species are native to North America, Europe, South Africa, and South Asia. Common names for the genus include glasswort, pickleweed, and marsh samphire; these common names are also used for some species not in Salicornia.[1] The main European species is often eaten, called marsh samphire in Britain, and the main North American species is occasionally sold in grocery stores or appears on restaurant menus, usually as 'sea beans'. Botanical[edit] The Salicornia species are small, usually less than 30 cm tall, succulent herbs with a jointed horizontal main stem and erect lateral branches.
The leaves are small and scale-like, and as such, the plant may appear leafless. Many species are green, but their foliage turns red in autumn. Salicornia species can generally tolerate immersion in salt water. Species[edit] salicornia Salicornia virginica Culinary[edit] Sea beans...............( salicornia )