try 10 new vegetables

I checked out Wegman’s this weekend when I was in Erie and found a few vegetables that I hadn’t been able to locate. The lupine bean, or lupini, is actually poisonous if untreated. It contains many bitter alkaloids that have to be removed using multiple soakings in brine. That poisonous factor made me want to try them.

Often used as a snack with beer, the salty flavor that remains from the brine would make it a good match. I left the husks on while I ate them, though I could’ve shucked them like some choose to. There wasn’t anything outstanding about them, and not being a big salt fan I doubt I’ll eat them again once I finish this bottle of them.

This is a mild-flavored East Asian giant white radish. It looks similar to a carrot in shape, but more like a turnip in coloring. Compared to regular red radishes, it has a much milder flavor.

Of course I couldn’t quite tell what it really tasted like. I ate it as part of hot kimchi. This spicy Korean relish combined the daikon with napa cabbage, green onion, red pepper, garlic, crushed shrimp and anchovy, and ginger. Needless to say my mouth is still burning. From what I could tell, I would like it better than regular radish only because it doesn’t have the same bite that radishes have. It’s not something I would seek out again, but I was looking to eat another new vegetable since I hadn’t in a while.

Just the name of the vegetable never made it appeal to me. They look like mishapen albino carrots. I asked some friends how to cook them and they said they add them to potatoes and boil them. I was nervous because they said they have a bite and I was thinking like horseradish. I had nothing to be scared of though.

They taste very much like carrots, and smelled like them too when I was cooking them. I’d say they also have a bit of a turnip flavour to them. I wish I had saved some raw so I could see what they taste like that way. I’d eat them again, and will definitely try some raw next time.

Also known as Swede, Yellow Turnip, or Swedish turnip, I chose today to eat this vegetable because it’s Halloween. Back before pumpkins were readily available in England, it was this vegetable that was hollowed out with faces carved into it as Jack O’Lanterns.

I think I’ve found my new favorite vegetable. It’s got the sweet flavor of cabbage while having the consistency of potato or yam. I boiled it up with some beets, then peeled it and ate it whole. It would be great mashed like a potato, or pureed like squash. I see so many uses for this vegetable and wonder why we never ate it growing up. I know my grandmother eats them as my uncle just gave her one.

I have to admit I recognized the flavor when I first bit into it and couldn’t figure out what flavor it was. Thankfully wikipedia revealed that this vegetable was designed as a cross between cabbage and turnip which revealed to me that it was the sweet cabbage flavor that I was recognizing.

This wasn’t on my original list of prospects, but I encountered it in Wal-Mart as chayote squash and since I wasn’t familiar with it, bought it. I’ve since learned it’s also called choko or christophine.

I sliced it up raw in a salad after sampling it. It tastes like cucumber even though it looks more like a pear. It’s texture is more like a raw potato. There is a soft seed inside of it which is also edible, and which had a better somewhat nutty flavor. I’d definitely eat the seed again, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the rest. I won’t avoid it, but I also won’t seek it out.

I picked up a couple tomatillos at Wal-Mart today too. These husk tomatoes look like green tomatoes, but they’re not. I could’ve bought some that had come out of their husk already, but went with ones still in the husk since that’s part of their charm.

They were delicious. I sliced them up and added them to my dinner salad the same as I would do a regular tomato. These had a great tart taste that I can’t really describe. You could tell they were from the tomato family, but the best I can compare them to is a Granny Smith apple. Tart/sweet, I guess. They’re somewhat pricey, but I would definitely eat them again. Next time I’ll add them to my homemade guacamole.

I stopped in Wal-Mart after a meeting this morning and stumbled upon edamame in the produce section so I had to buy it. I had only had a banana for breakfast and had passed on the donuts at the meeting, so I was hungry. Reading the back of the package it indicated that you could eat them as a snack, so I did just that on my hour drive home.

They reminded me of fresh peas out of the pod if they had been left on the vine too long, in taste and texture. Another thing they reminded me of was lima beans. Neither of these is a favorite of mine, and I doubt I’ll have these again. If they come in something I’ve ordered, I’ll eat them (kind of like garbanzo beans) but it’s not something I’ll seek out.

Even though I had a bout of beeturia last week, I went ahead and bought some more fresh beets this weekend. These had the greens attached to them, which is what made me buy them. I ate some of the greens in my salad tonight. They had a good taste to them, similar to chard, but sweeter. I’ve saved the remainder of the beet greens to cook up with some turnip and kale greens. I may even throw in some mustard greens with them too.

I bought a can of them from Brazil. I rinsed them in warm water before adding them to my salad. Before adding any dressing to the salad I decided I should try them to see what flavor would go best.

The palm reminded me of artichoke or asparagus in flavour. The texture reminded me of the hearts of celery, which I love to eat (you know the real tender leafy bits in the dead center).

I wound up eating them all right off without adding any dressing to them, and then ate my salad later. I will definitely eat these again, though not often since they are expensive and involve the early death of a palm tree. (Kind of like how I’ll eat veal only once or twice a year too.)

So I bought myself some cactus and read the directions on the back of the jar. It said to rinse it first in cold water. I went ahead and used warm water, and then added the strips of cactus to my salad.

The flavor reminds me of artichoke hearts. I wonder if that’s because of the marinade that it was in. The texture is similar too. I like it, and would definitely eat cactus again.