FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
YARD-LONG BEAN
Excerpts from Hawkes, Alex D. 1968. A World of Vegetable Cookery. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Though the Yard-Long Bean (Vigna sesquipedalis, of the Legume family) is most often seen in this country as a horticultural curiosity, in the Asiatic tropics-where the species origiinates-it is extensively cultivated for its delicious edible pods and beans.
An annual, straggling vine with rather pretty, usually white, flowers, it is remarkable for its slender, elongate seed pods, which may attain a length of four feet, yet a breadth of only a half-inch or so. When these are young and soft in texture, they are popularly eaten as a green vegetable, with a flavor which is accurately designated by the alternate vernacular, Asparagus Bean.
Asia Food. 2008March5Accessed. http://www.asiafood.org/
YARD-LONG BEAN, VIGNA UNGULCULATA, V. SES-QUIPEDALIS, V. SINENSIS, V. CYLINDRICA
Known by a host of names including asparagus bean, pea bean, cowpea, catjang, China pea and snake bean, this is the fresh bean from which the black-eyed pea/bean (dried) is derived. The young pods have a delicate flavour which is alluded to by the name asparagus bean. (These names can be confusing as asparagus bean is a term often used when what is meant is asparagus pea, the smaller relative of the winged bean, Tetragonolobus or Lotus.) Yard-long beans are worth trying for their tenderness and flavour. Purchasing: Look for firm, deep green beans without a trace of sponginess or yellowing. Use them as soon as possible, because they lose texture if kept too long.
Preparation: Snip off the stem ends, cut into bite-sized lengths. They don't have strings which must be removed, so are easy to prepare.China: tseng dou
Other Languages:
India: lobia
Indonesia: kacang panjang
Japan: juuroku-sasage
Malaysia: kacang panjang
Philippines: sitaw
Sri Lanka: makaraal
Thailand: thua chin
