Edible Bamboo

By Sonia R. Martinez

Bamboo is a grass. That was news to me. I knew you could eat the bamboo shoots or young canes, as I had eaten the canned varieties many times, however, I did not know what to look for or how to harvest or prepare them.

Once you taste the real thing, you will never, ever, eat bamboo shoots from a can again.

There is a huge clump of bamboo growing at the bottom of our driveway and we have a friend who has been coming by every so often, for years, to harvest the new shoots.

During one of his harvesting visits, I asked him to show me what to look for and how to prepare it. He was very helpful and cooperated for a “how-to” photo shoot. Afterwards, I was finally able to prepare and taste fresh bamboo shoots for the first time.

Bamboo shoots look funny when first emerging through the ground. Some can be straight and some are curved and “horn-like.”

The shoots are harvested when they’re no more than two weeks old. Any older and they can be fibrous and tough.

According to some sources I checked, bamboo shoots are high in fiber, a good source of potassium, and contain few calories (one cup of half-inch long slices contain only 14 calories) and hardly any fat, making it an ideal food to snack on or add to a salad.

After the shoot is dug up and cut, you start peeling the layers of green wrapped around it; below that is a shiny pink layer of “skin” similar to the skin on fresh ginger. This layer needs to be trimmed off.

Most varieties of bamboo need to be cooked before they are eaten, although there are some varieties that can be eaten raw such as Nastus elatus, Dendrocalamus brandesii, Phyllostachys dulcis, and Phyllostachys vivax, although my sources said the last two taste better cooked.

Unless you know positively that your bamboo is edible raw, cook the shoots for at least 20 minutes. Our friend told me his family cooks them for one hour. I opted for safe and also cooked them for an hour.

The bamboo shoot can be stored raw, in a refrigerator, while still whole and unpeeled. Just place it in the vegetable crisper drawer, for no longer than two weeks as it then starts developing a bitter taste. Keep the shoots away from sunlight as much as possible, since that also can make it develop a bitter taste.

After peeling and trimming the root end, you slice it, dice it, or julienne the shoots, then boil them in fresh water. After cooking, rinse in cold water, drain, and store in a lidded container in the refrigerator until ready to use. The cooked shoots can also be drained and frozen.

So far, I have used them only in salads. One particular salad we named “Yard Salad” because every single component, except the chèvre, came from our yard.

A typical “Yard Salad” can consist of strips or slices of cooked bamboo shoots on a mix of lettuces, spinach, and other greens, such as Malabar spinach leaves, Okinawan spinach leaves and a chiffonade of Dawn Dewa spinach leaves; whole mizuna leaves, nasturtium leaves, a chiffonade of Italian or sweet basil, leaves of lemon basil, ruffled and plain purple basil, snippets of flat or Italian parsley, the little topknot of pineapple sage, snipped chives, or any other garden greens or herbs. You can add seeded and sliced sweet banana peppers, tomatoes, and other fresh garden vegetables. To add color, sprinkle pineapple sage blossoms, marigold petals, nasturtium blooms, or any other edible flowers.

My favorite vinaigrette for this salad is made with liliko‘i syrup (equal amounts juice and sugar then boiled to reduce) and white vinegar. You can add a few garlic cloves and ginger slices to it, if you wish.

Besides salads, bamboo shoots are also excellent used in a stir-fry.

One of my friends, says he likes to use the raw varieties in salads using much the same ingredients as one would find in the Thai version of Green Papaya Salad; just replace the thinly shredded bamboo shoots for the green papaya. He also says that fresh palm hearts and Peach Palm (Bactris gasipaes) will work in this dish.

Contact writer Sonia R. Martinez