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Preparing
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New Zealand spinach
Tetragonia tetragonioides · Leafy green
40 pairings
New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) is a low, sprawling warm-season green grown as a heat-tolerant substitute for true spinach, which it is not botanically related to. Its thick, triangular, slightly fleshy leaves are mild, soft and faintly succulent, with a green, grassy, gently mineral flavour that is almost always cooked rather than eaten raw.
Picking a good onedrag
Frosted, plump, tips snappingYellow, limp and weeping
Shop freshThe everyday bunch: blanch first, then sauté in olive oil, or drop it into soup, dal or an omelette.Buy it
Leaf surfaceGreen, the frosting patchy and dulling
The leaf in handStill fleshy, edges beginning to soften
Shoot tipsBend before they snap, ends drying
Smell at the leafFaintly green, close to nothing at all
What to look for, from frosted, plump, tips snapping to yellow, limp and weeping.
What one gives you
72%
Usable yield
720 g a kilo · large stems and roots off
Keeping ittap a band
A domestic fridge holds it about 7× longer than the counter.
Humidity
90–98%
The one recommendation for this crop says only "high humidity"; 90–98% is the general cold-store band. The leaf is 94% water and limps in bare fridge air.
Airflow
Bagged, leaves dry
The one trial sealed it washed and spun dry in a plastic bag at 4 °C and lost 3.78% of its weight in 21 days. Bag it — but wet leaves rot in a shut bag.