Basella alba
Plant family: Basellaceae
Malabar spinach is a beautiful, perennial, edible vine that loves the heat and sun. Its grown as a leaf vegetable in Asia and Africa, and thrives in Texas summers. Give it lots of sun and room to climb, and you'll have a lush trellis of greenery all summer long. Malabar spinach plants are ambitious self-seeders, so plant them where you want them to self-seed every year.
Cooking with Malabar Spinach
Add the young malabar spinach leaves to salads, toss the older leaves in stews and sautees. If you don’t want your plants to self-seed, cut off the young green seed pods before they turn purple and drop (the green pods are tasty in stir fries).
Once the pods turn purple, they can be used as a food coloring (like in this cashew cheesecake, for example).
We often have Malabar spinach plants available in the summer. You can find our plant list here.