Sauteed Sea Bean and Mushrooms

So we went to the English Walmart the other day. It's called ASDA. I have no idea if it's an acronym or what it stands for. I do know that it's apart of the Walmart family.I am not a huge fan of Walmart, sorry if that offends anyone.

However, I have a confession to make, I do like ASDA. Imagine Walmart but 2/3 of the store is food. Don't think frozen, processed, heat-and-ready-to-heat kind of food. Think aisles, many, many aisles, of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, breads and more, of course more, it's Walmart.

So I picked up at package of spinach and on the label is the farmer's name. In fact, most of the produce packs have the name of the person who grew it, how cool is that?

Things were as inexpensive as our other favorite store, Sainsbury, but still a full sized, glass jar of Nutella was only a pound, fresh herb plants were 68p, and I bought sea beans for 1.5 pounds. It was my splurge of the day.

My first encounter of sea beans was in the summer when I was about seven. I was enrolled in a summer camp called Bay Camp where we learned about all the creatures and plants that lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you didn't know already, another passion of mine is animals and zoology which also came at an early age. Anyways, they told us we could eat the sea beans (they called it pickle weed) and so we tried them. They tasted salty, crunchy and of the ocean. They also provide habitat for many of the shorebirds and the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse. Say that ten times fast.

Fast forward to this summer when I was at my favorite produce store, the Berkeley Bowl. I was shocked to see the pickle weed I tried as a kid selling for $14 a pound and the name changed to sea beans, which sounds better than pickle weed, I guess. I guess the habitat for salt marsh animals has turned to a classy, modern green for foodies. Don't worry, the sea beans are grown like any other crop, no mice were hurt in harvesting.

The sea beans (pickle weed, glasswort, samphire) grows in a salt marsh and therefore have a distinct salty taste. They can be eaten raw in salads or cooked. They are crunchy, salty and resemble spinach or asparagus.

The Ingredients

a couple of handfuls of sea beans (less than 1/4 of a pound)

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
2 teaspoons of water

1 teaspoon butter

1/2 teaspoon oil

1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley

1 clove of garlic chopped


The Method
Heat a pan on medium high heat and add the butter and oil. Thrown in the mushrooms and cook until lightly brown on each side.
Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Toss in the sea beans and water.

Cover for about 2 minutes and then saute until all the water is evaporated. There is no real need for salt because the sea beans are quite salty.

If you happen to run into sea beans, give them a try. They are a perfect side for fish or other seafood.

Recipe by Spencer Huey