Sea Bean (Samphire) Sesame Salad

On a recent trip to a North Sea island, my boyfriend and I did some accidental foraging. While we were walking across the mudflats he pointed out green stalks growing from the sand. We agreed that it looked like zeekraal, which is the Dutch word for samphire, sea beans or salicornia. While my boyfriend just started eating it on the spot, no reservations, I was a bit more reluctant to try it, although I did have a bite or two.

Only two weeks later, when we received our local produce box, low and behold, what did I find nestled between our weekly vegetable haul? Sea beans! I was so excited to actually see them there, because for one, I love this kind of serendipity. But also because I was incredibly relieved that they must have been deemed edible by some official food authority. My worries of suffering from a delayed onset of food poisoning disappeared into thin air. Instead we set out to make a salad, and it’s a keeper, too.