Sea beans grow rampant down at the Key Peninsula. They’re everywhere, just waiting to be harvested. I’d never known about this bounty, hiding in plain site, until Melanie introduced me to this salty snack during Sunday morning’s low tide. They’re certainly very cute, and harvesting them could not be easier. But what ARE they?
Low Tide
Sea Beans Ahoy!!
Sea beans grow in clumps galore along the beaches and estuaries of the Puget Sound. (Edible Seattle has a great article that gets more technical about sea beans.) Melanie first learned about sea beans when she saw them at the Foraged & Found booth at our farmer’s market. Since then, she’s been foraging and finding them herself.
So pretty
At low tide, you just walk up to an unsuspecting clump, take out your pocket knife, and clip off a few branches of the succulent greens, down by the base.
Sea Beans and Halibut
You can eat sea beans with all kinds of food – we’ll make them with stir fry, put them in a salad, or just serve them alongside fish. You can’t go wrong with grilled halibut and sea beans.
Rinse Your Sea Beans
Make sure your sea bean’s water source is clean. When you get them home, give them a good rinse. We steamed them for a minute until they were bright green. They taste – well – like beans of the sea. Bright, salty, and they kind of pop in your mouth.
Salt and pepper your halibut fillet and put it on the grill over medium heat. Put it skin side down for about twenty minutes. It’s ready to eat when it’s flaking a bit.
Sea Beans and Grilled Halibut
We’re going to try making them in potato salad, and also try our hand at pickling them this summer.
Related articles
- Farm to Fork: A Recipe from the San Juan Islands, Washington (williams-sonoma.com)
- Chanterelle Mushroom Harvest on the Key Peninsula (seattlefoodshed.wordpress.com)
I’ve always found it slightly strange that there are restaurants whose menus are based entirely around the concept of serving foraged food–and then charging an arm and a leg for them. The fact that you just harvested your own side dish from the wild makes me super happy. And it looks delicious, to boot!
Ha! Totally! When we go out, we can never bring ourselves to buy mussels or clams any more, because we can just walk down to the beach and eat a boatload for free. And we sure don’t take it for granted. It’s so cool to have all this bounty spread out at our feet. If you get the chance, give sea beans a try. They’re really fun!
Ok so now I know what sea beans are but I’d rather play dumb so that you’ll still make them for us when we come down there sometime.
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