Malabar Red Stem Spinach is a striking climbing spinach variety known for its beautiful appearance and delicious flavor. This vigorous vine thrives when trellised, growing robustly through the fall season. With a taste similar to mild Swiss chard, it offers a versatile addition to many dishes.
Every part of the plant is edible, including the leaves and tender shoots. Malabar spinach is especially popular in Bengali cuisine, where it is used in a variety of simple, flavorful preparations.
Culinary suggestions: Malabar spinach has a unique mucilaginous texture, which makes it an excellent thickening agent for soups and stews. It can be substituted in any recipe calling for traditional spinach, making it perfect for stir-fries, noodle dishes, and other savory meals. In Japanese cooking, it is often prepared as tempura or ohitashi, served with a delightful sesame dressing.
This warm-weather vegetable is highly sensitive to frost and should not be planted outdoors until several weeks after the last frost has passed. For best results, start the seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the final frost date. The seeds generally take 10 days to 3 weeks to germinate. Malabar spinach reaches maturity in approximately 50 to 60 days and is typically planted in late spring to early summer, offering a delicious harvest for the warmer months.