Orach ✦

Arroche

What it is

Orach fed European kitchen gardens for centuries before spinach displaced it in the eighteenth century; French gardeners called it bonne-dame and grew the red form as much for its colour as for the pot. It is a saltbush of the genus Atriplex, so it carries a faint salinity of its own and none of spinach's oxalic grip on the teeth.

In the kitchen

The red leaves bleed magenta the moment they meet heat or acid: dress them at the table, not in the kitchen, or a whole salad turns pink. Two minutes in butter is the entire cooking time.

Goes with

Butter Egg Garlic Lemon Olive oil Ricotta Nutmeg

Same species

Red orache

In season alongside

New Zealand spinach Agretti Broccoli Celery Cucumber Broad bean

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