Due to my small growing space, going vertical is the way to grow! I grow Malabar spinach (also known as climbing spinach, Ceylon spinach, vine spinach and others) up one of the walls and along the railing of the balcony. I recommend growing it on your balcony as it is very prolific, fast to grow and has many uses. Due to it being so prolific, I have had to come up with different ways to use it as there is so much of it!
Growing Malabar spinach
It is a fast-growing perennial vine native to India and South Asia. It comes in a green and red variety. It likes full sun, but I have had great success in shady areas. I grew it successfully it down the side of my old house in a pot where it only got about 2 hours of sunlight. While it is often called ‘climbing spinach’ it does not produce supporting tendrils and so needs support and ties to keep it in place. The younger or new shoots tend to snap off easily so leave it grow a bit before tying. Some people even grow it as an ornamental.
Malabar Spinach produces epic numbers of purple berries. They are dark purple and can stain your clothes, mouth or fingers, some people use the berries as a dye or as a food colouring (check out this article). They taste like a mixture between mushroom and spinach. The berries will dry on the vine and drop off and will produce heaps of seedlings below the vine. I am always pulling out heaps of them!
It is a very forgiving plant and it takes a while to die if you don’t water it, it does like to be kept pretty wet so plant below it things that don’t mind wetter soils, things like mints. I grow alpine strawberries below mine as the vine casts a bit of shade.
Different ways to use Malabar spinach
You can use all the plant. The younger leaves are the nicest, but you can use the mature ones. I find after a while the mature leaves go very rubbery and change colour to purple in the colder months. Still, very edible!
Just like spinach and some other veggies, Malabar spinach contains oxalic acid so you must cook it before eating it. The cooking process removes most of the oxalic acid. Not doing so can cause kidney stones for some people. Most of the time I blanch or sauté it before using it.
Here are some of the ways to use Malabar spinach.
Anything that requires spinach – replace with it with Malabar spinach. You can blanch, freeze it, then add it to any recipe that calls for frozen spinach or add to soups.
Cream of spinach soup with coconut milk. Yummo!
Malabar spinach and ricotta cannelloni
Palak paneer – use Malabar spinach instead.
Sauté - there are so many options. Sauté with any combination of olive oil, onion garlic, cheese, bacon, and chilli. Nice with a squeeze of lemon at the end. This is one of my favourite ways to eat it.
Savoury pancake batter – basic pancake batter (1 cup self-raising flour, 1 cup milk or water, 1 egg) with Malabar spinach, salt, pepper, parmesan and herbs fried in a pan.
In with curry – add it to any curry or dahl.
Use as lasagne sheets – This is one is interesting. Replace wheat pasta sheets with Malabar spinach. Make sure to layer them and have cross over. This is a best with the large leaves.
Vine leaves – make vine leaves/dolmades and use large Malabar spinach leaves instead of vine leaves. You have to blanch the leaves first as they snap uncooked.
Spanakopita – A Greek spinach pie with fetta and filo pastry. use Malabar spinach instead.
Gozleme– Malabar spinach and cheese gozleme and a squeeze of lemon.
Chinese cooking – Malabar spinach is used in a range of Chinese cuisine, watch this video.
Sri Lankan cooking – as it is also called Ceylon (Sri Lankan) spinach, it is used widely in Sri Lankan cooking. See this recipe.
Cream based pasta sauces – add it to creamy pasta sauces.
Pesto – you can make a nice pesto with it. Blanch it and then squeeze out excess water so you have about 1.5 cups of cooked Malabar spinach. Put it into a food processor, blender or use a stick blender. Add 3 table spoons of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder, squeeze of lemon juice, a bit of salt and then add half a cup of nuts (I use almonds or walnuts). You can also add parmesan powder if you like.
Egg dishes – add it to omelettes, frittatas etc.
Soups – add it chopped up to soups for more veggie content.
As a food colouring – you can use the juices of the berries to make a purple/mauve food colouring. Add it to jelly, cakes, frosting etc. Check out this article
Conclusion
Malabar spinach is a fast growing, prolific and useful vegetable you can easily grow up and along things which is great for small space gardens and balconies. You can use it in a lot of recipes.
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