I tried salt made from a plant - Sea Asparagus (salicornia)

Episode: Amazing Plants
Species: Salicornia sp
Location: New York, USA

0:00-2:24 What is Sea Asparagus?
2:24-7:21 Green Salt Review

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[ashash]

Here in Türkiye, this (Salicornia europaea, or a local variety of it, I'm not sure) is called deniz börülcesi, roughly "sea beans". It's not eaten raw, and I don't think I've seen salt made out of it. The recipe is, you soak it in cold water for at least an hour to get rid of the excess salt, then put it in boiling water and simmer it for about 30 minutes until soft. Then you get rid of the hard stem inside, by holding one end of each stalk, and kind of pulling at the other end until the soft part comes off. These soft parts are then mixed with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, and some garlic, and refrigerated. Served cold as an appetizer, e.g. along with meze.

[erikjohnson]

This and other salt accumulating beachside halophytes used to be ashed to obtain minerals needed for glassmaking. Neither here nor there, but some people like random trivia.

[ZaDussault]

A thing to add tho: It's not a salt substitute. It's just normal salt with bits of the plant. It concentrates sea salt in its tissues!

[suewarnes]

Here in the Uk we call it Samphire. Delicious steamed and served with unsalted butter or Hollandaise sauce.😋

[paulus.tarsensus]

3:32 'Somewhere between green tea...and a hamster cage'. LOL, you win the internet. I could *taste* what you were describing you smelt.

[FishareFriendsNotFood]

Hmmm, I could see the green salt to actually be very useful on salads, a lot of times chopped salads can use lettuce that is super bland and I could see actually benefiting from some added 'green' taste to make me feel like I'm eating vegetables instead of watery cardboard🙂

[gruenerKoenig]

In Germany we take it raw, toss it with feta cheese (crumbled), raw onion (cut in rings) and diced tomato as a refreshing salat. A bit of olive oil, no spices needed.

[Handles_AreStupid]

In the UK, we call it "marsh samphire" and it has a mildly salty taste with a vegatable like aftertaste. We usually cook it with fish and lemon. Grows wild here, I believe, but only in the coastal regions.

[lellab.]

In Italy, one of the most common use for salicornia is to make a frittata.

[Caberbalschnit]

I could see a handful of the fresh stuff being amazing when chopped into 1/4" or so pieces and tossed with a salad. I wanna try it now lol.

[critterjon]

Fun fact: sea bean is the most salt tolerant plant on earth able so much so that they plants are able to be watered with water several times saltier than sea water

[TonyFisher]

I find green salt delightful. Not only does it add saltiness but it also adds a nice umami kick. It aint cheap though, and you will need more than you would for an equivalent of any other salt. Amazing in soups and as a seasoning (especially nice on popcorn)

[Myndness]

I'm doing part time fish-selling on a market here in my city on Fridays, and we often sell "queller" how it's called here in Germany. Great with a little butter in the pan to eat together with some potatoes.

[frankmacleod]

we call it pickleweed in California. I spent half the day trampling the stuff yesterday at work.

[catsmeow_]

we have it alot in the seaside cities in turkey its very tasty when prepared properly

[Ludvig]

"I watched Sea Beans glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate."

[brianmccarrier]

The interesting thing about Salicornia plants is that they are really, really salt tolerant. They're salt tolerant to the point that you can grow them with sea water. As our fresh water supply dwindles more than a few people have looked into various Salicornia species as a possible new food source that requires no fresh water to grow.

[JTMusicbox]

Great video! It’s a shame you didn’t enjoy the pile of green dust more but it was fun to learn about.

[hudefuk]

Need a Hamster cage flavor rating graphic.

[seisage]

This plant is an extremely quintessential saltmarsh plant and it's one of my favorites. We call it "pickleweed" here on the west coast of the US. I have, in fact, pickled it before, but I prefer treating it more like asparagus and sauteeing with butter and lemon.
The genus out here has been renamed to Sarcocornia, but it's functionally the same plant. It's extremely salt-tolerant, but not by choice. If grown in soil with fresh water, it grows faster and healthier, and the same goes for many other saltmarsh plants. They've simply been out-competed by other terrestrial plants, forced closer to shore. Really impressive adaptation, and they help to maintain shorelines through soil accretion.