need help identifying this salad green

Jul 11, 2004 4 Replies

hi, photo is located here:

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anybody know what this is? i brought some from a greenmarket vendor, but forgot to jot down the name of it. I thought it would be a bitter salad green that you can use raw, but having tasting the raw leaves, i found it definately bitter, with a slight burning sensation at the back of my throat. cooking it down, it tastes exactly like spinach. however, some ppl have said it looks like red shiso, or opal basil, but both seem unlikely.



is this spinach? if so, what variety is it?



if not spinach, what can it be?



thanks, r


Isn't it amaranthus? not sure though.

Looks like an amaranth, Amaranthus sp. Not all have leaf markings like in your photo.

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Hard to tell from a photo without being able to smell or taste, but that would be my guess also. Mine looks very much like that.

Bob S.

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