Marsh Samphire has to be one of my all time favourite vegetables, fresh, crunchy and salty it is also highly seasonal, and recently trendier and hence more expensive, so I was very pleased to come across Salsola Soda in the Real Seeds catalogue last winter. It’s a salad vegetable that is very popular in Italy and Japan, and to my taste also very similar to samphire.
It can be used raw in a salad dressed with a light lemony vinaigrette, or lightly steamed with a little butter or olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and a little seasoning, which was what I did.
I’ve been very impressed with the productivity of the few plants I grew, but found it quite tricky to germinate, and found it important to keep weeds at bay around the seedlings as they become swamped easily. It is definately a plant I plan to grow again next year.