New Zealand spinach
Tetragonia tetragonioides · Leafy green
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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 freshBuy itThe everyday bunch: blanch first, then sauté in olive oil, or drop it into soup, dal or an omelette.
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 you get from one
72%
Edible part
720 g a kilo · large stems and roots off
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 7× longer than the counter.
90–98%
Humidity
Bagged, leaves dry
Airflow