Green Market Find: Suiho

As I have mentioned before, one of my goals each year at the Green Market is to find something with which I am unfamiliar or have never cooked before and bring it home with me. I achieved this goal early this year at one of my favorite vendors, Leaning Shed Farm. Actually, I have found quite a few unusual and new to me items there.

I could not find much information online about suiho, but it appears to be a form of Chinese kale that is similar to broccoli and is related to the mustard family. Looking at it and tasting it, I can believe that. It has a little of that mustard bite combined with that broccoli rabe bitterness. The flowers are edible, and although I could discern no added flavor from them, they did add a nice textural contrast.

I decided to make fried rice with it, along with my last batch of sugar snap peas for the season. I added an orange bell pepper for a bit of color.

It was a happy combination. The sweetness of the peas provided a lovely contrast to the slight bitterness of the suiho, punctuated by bursts of soury sweetness from the pepper. I would definitely bring suiho home with me again.

You can find my fried rice recipe here. Just substitute these vegetables for the mushrooms, water chestnuts and frozen peas, adding the longest cooking items first.