Malabar spinach is a new one for us this year. We read about it in a Texas-based gardening magazine, that it was one plant that could tolerate and even thrive in the Texas summer heat.
Though it was touted as being a spinach substitute, it is definitely not spinach, or to a large degree, even spinach-like. It doesn't particularly taste like spinach, and it doesn't cook like spinach, but it is a green leafy plant...so I guess that makes it sorta spinachy?
It grows as a vine, and grows rather rapidly once established. I made a tepee-type trellis out of bamboo for it to climb. The structure is about 4' tall and it rather quickly grew past the top.
We use the younger, smaller and more tender leaves raw as a addition to salad greens - which is my preferred way to consume Malabar spinach. The older, larger and slightly tougher leaves are better sauteed or stir fried.
One issue with the leaves is that they are somewhat succulent-like, in other words they have a gooey substance, not unlike okra, contained within the leaves. Eaten raw it really isn't obvious - to me anyway. Cooked, however, the gooey nature seems to become more apparent.
Nutritionally Malabar seems to be worthy of growing. The USDA nutrition database shows that Malabar spinach and real spinach compare fairly closely in nutritional value.
I'll grow it again.
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