Red Malabar Spinach – 5 Seeds

Red Malabar Spinach Seeds. Red Malabar Spinach (Basella rubra) is not a true spinach but a different species. Other common names include Vine Spinach, Red Vine Spinach, Creeping Spinach, and Ceylon Spinach. Even though it’s not a true spinach, it has the same taste. This heat-loving Asian vine has lovely red stems and delicious, succulent leaves that are great in salads and stir-fries. A delicious green that can be grown as an annual in many areas or as a perennial in sub-tropical areas.

Red Malabar Spinach has pinkish flowers and purplish red vines. The leaves and stem contain mucilage, so it can appear slimy when broken off the vine. This mucilage is a great source of soluble fiber, much like pectin in apples.

The vine will grow rapidly in the heat of summer all the way through fall.

Red Malabar Spinach Culinary Uses

• The edible leaves (and shoots) of Basella ruba resemble spinach with a mild, slightly peppery flavor with a hint of citrus and are used in the same way.
• The young leaves can be eaten raw mixed in a green salad, and steamed or boiled to be used like cooked spinach.
• Because of the mucilagenous nature, it can also be used to thicken soups and stews.
• The leaves can be eaten throughout the season, but once plants start flowering, the leaves become bitter.

Growing Red Malabar Spinach

• Soaking the seeds in water overnight before planting or scarifying the seed with a file, sandpaper or even a knife, will speed up germination.
• Germination will take three weeks or longer at temperatures between 18-24 C.
• Start Malabar Spinach Seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before last spring frost date.
• Transplant in the garden once the soil has warmed, placing plants at least a foot apart.
• Seed may also be planted directly in the garden. Direct sow Malabar spinach seeds  two to three weeks after the last frost date.
• Grow in rich, fertile, moisture-retentive soils in full sun. Tolerates light shade.
• Use a slow-release fertilizer.