Sea beans (salicornia)

Salicornia spp.

vegetable

Small green, fleshy, jointed stems of a salt-marsh plant, crunchy and naturally salty; raw, blanched or pickled.

Origin

Atlantic coasts

Season (United States)

May to August · grows in your region

Preparation

It grows in salt water and keeps it: taste it before salting anything else in the dish. A rinse, or a minute's blanching, takes some of it out.

Did you know?

Its ashes, like those of seaweed, long supplied the soda used to make glass and soap; hence its English name, glasswort.