Also known as scorzonera, black salsify is maybe not my favorite everyday vegetable, but it is a real treat to have once or twice a year.
It’s not a difficult vegetable to grow in your own garden, but what you see in the picture above came from a local market. The hard clay of my garden is too heavy for black salsify.
Black salsify has a cousin called salsify or haverwortel (oat root) in some Germanic languages. It is similar, but is white in color and the roots are bigger and thicker. I have grown salsify in my garden successfully, but the problem was it began to naturalize, in other words started to grow wild and turn into a weed. Both salsify and black salsify are cooked in a similar way, and both taste a bit like oysters.
Anyway, to cook black salsify you first need to remove the skin. I find the simplest way is to just use a vegetable peeler, but some people prefer to first blanch it in boiling water for 2 minutes then rinse it in cold water to loosen the skins. After peeling, cut into bit sized pieces. At this stage it will discolor very quickly with exposure to the air. To prevent discoloring, place right away into a bowl of water with some lemon juice or vinegar added. Rinse, then steam for a few minutes until it is soft but not mushy. Add butter, salt and pepper to taste.
This is very common in Japanese cooking (“Gobo”), and is usually translated as burdock root. We are finding it in all of the asian markets. Often, it is cooked in little strips, as they come off the peeler. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve just come across Gobo (Japanese Burdock) in my seed book, Suzanne Ashworth Seed to Seed. It turns out these are actually different plants. They are listed next to each other, obviously because of their similarity. They are both a member of the Compositae family of plants, which includes among others sunflowers and lettuce.
Both plants have edible leaves. They are not genetically compatible, and will not cross pollinate when grown side by side. The latin name of Black Salsify is ‘Scorzonera Hispanica’ and Gobo is ‘Arctium Lappa’.
… we have it in germany too – we call it “schwarzwurzel” – black root or “winterspargel” – winter asparagus
hi there,
am trying to find out if i can grow this in a greehouse,any info appreciated.