New Zealand spinach

Tetragonia tetragonioides

leaf

Thick, fleshy leaves of a creeping plant from New Zealand and Australia, the “summer spinach”, which thrives in heat; cooked like spinach. 100 g provide 30 mg of vitamin C, with beta-carotene and lutein.

Origin

New Zealand

Season (United States)

June to October

Preparation

Blanched for a minute, the water discarded, it loses part of its oxalates. It grows at ground level and catches the splashes of watering: washing it leaf by leaf, in plenty of water, beats a quick rinse of the whole bunch.

Molecules

Beta-carotene (vitamin A) · Lutein and zeaxanthin · Vegetable nitrates · Vitamin K1 · Chlorophyll

Did you know?

Captain Cook had it cooked for his scurvy-stricken crew; Joseph Banks brought it back to Europe, and it is still called “Cook's cabbage”.