Sea beet ✦

Bette maritime

What it is

Every beetroot, chard, mangel and sugar beet on earth was bred out of this one wild coastal plant, which still grows unimproved on shingle banks and sea walls from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Selection ran two ways from here, down into the root or out into the leaf, and the wild form gave up neither.

In the kitchen

The leaves need no ribbing and no blanching, but grit hides in their crinkles: two changes of water, not one. Thirty seconds in a hot pan with oil and garlic, because beyond that the mineral edge turns metallic.

Goes with

Butter Garlic Lemon Cream Nutmeg Anchovy Olive oil

Same species

Beetroot Chioggia beetroot Crapaudine beetroot Isomalt Swiss chard Vergeoise

In season alongside

Broccoli Dandelion greens Broad bean Fiddlehead fern Good King Henry Hijiki

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