Mizuna

Mizuna

What it is

The name means water vegetable: Kyoto growers raised it on beds flooded between the rows, with water doing the work fertiliser does elsewhere. It reached European salad bags because it regrows four or five times after cutting, not because anyone chose it for flavour.

In the kitchen

If you cook it at all, cut the heat and drop it into the hot liquid off the stove — residual heat is enough to wilt it, and thirty seconds more turns it slimy. In a salad it will carry a heavier dressing than lettuce.

Goes with

Toasted sesame oil Rice vinegar Soy sauce Daikon Tuna Yuzu Ponzu Sesame

Same species

Baek-kimchi Broccoli Brussels sprout Cabbage Cauliflower Cavolo nero

In season alongside

Parsley Watercress Sweetfish (ayu) Bell pepper Celery Celtuce

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