Basella, Malabar Spinach

Also Ceylon spinach, Malabar nightshade, slippery vegetable, saan choi and variations (Chinese), poi (Indian), brèdes (French Caribbean)

Phooey on the whole mess of common names! Or phooi, which is another name I find on bins of basella in the Indian shops I frequent in Queens. Nightshade—but isn’t that deadly? And spinach—modified by Indian, Surinam, Ceylon, climbing, vine, and Malabar (the most common). Open up a cookbook that mentions the vegetable, and you’ll read that it is a strain of spinach. But it is not related to spinach, and if you expect it to be, you’ll be taken aback when you eat it. The plant is distinct enough to have its own family, Basellaceae; spinach belongs to the Chenopodiaceae.